Dolls Through the Gate
by Skardae
Summary: When a mysterious portal to another world opens up in the middle of Japan, the T-Dolls of G&K are sent through to investigate.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Life seemed to change too fast for Youji Itami. Where once androids had seemed like something to be found only in the realm of the light novels, manga and anime that he was so fond of, they'd begun to grow more and more into the life of humans everywhere. That said, until now, he'd hoped he'd never have to come across those used for combat, so-called "Tactical Dolls", much less those from a prestigious PMC such as Gryphon & Kryuger. Yes, an easy life where he could sit back, enjoy anime and play games was much more preferable to someone like him.

But, looking at the five lovely young women who now accompanied him, he felt fortunate to have had such an experience. Indeed, to the casual observer, they simply appeared to be a group of lovely European ladies enjoying their time on holiday in Ginza. Itami was, of course, there for a reason of his own; the annual anime convention that he'd spent the prior year working so hard to save money for. He flicked through his phone, making last-minute adjustments to his itinerary. He'd allowed plenty of time to get there early, something he was now glad for, as the girls kept getting sidetracked along the way.

FNC was getting distracted. The small T-Doll pressed her face up against the glass of the patisserie, as though she could somehow push her way through the glass and unite with the towering confectionery within.

"Whoa! It's a seven-layer cake!" she gasped, almost salivating all over the glass. When she'd found out that FAL was taking them for a holiday in Japan, she'd prepared a list of all the sweets she'd wanted to try. Daifuku, mochi, even just ordinary candies in all sorts of interesting shapes. It was almost a shame she had to eat them all, but, as she often told herself, that's how she was built.

49 looked around nervously, hoping that neither the shopkeeper nor any passers-by had noticed FNC's antics, as the small girl was rapidly describing everything she saw through the her mouthful of chocolate. "C-c-come on, FNC," she pleaded, "P-please don't make a scene." She noticed that Itami was staring between FNC and the gigantic cake she was admiring, and remembered all the stories she'd been told about Japanese etiquette. She dreaded the thought of offending their host. She hunched over the smaller girl, telling her to hurry up in hushed tones.

"Ladies." The team's leader, FAL, hadn't slowed down, leading her two remaining team members further along the plaza. "You're keeping our gracious host waiting." She waved one hand back at the other two, looking at them sidelong across her shoulder. Perched upon her other shoulder, her small, white ferret stood up, looking curiously at the two stragglers.

Five-seveN could tell that Youji was getting impatient. She took him by one arm, leading him onward before he got bored. She looked up at the taller human.

"So, Youji…" She noticed him look at her uncomfortably as she used his first name. "Do you meet a lot of girls like us?"

"Like you?" She'd completely captured his attention, leaving FNC's antics behind them.

"Foreign girls. Or, perhaps, those of us who are not human?" She let her accent come through, mixed with a gleam of playfulness.

Itami had had plenty of experience with non-human girls, naturally. As an otaku, he was well-versed in interacting with all manner of people, from elves, to wizards, to gods and everything in between.

Well, in the simulated world, anyway.

"Something like that," he responded wryly. "Are you interested in the convention?"

F2000 - or 2K, as some people liked to call her, perked up at the mention of the event. "Of course!" she exclaimed. "We could not come all this way to Japan only to miss out on such a celebration! It's a part of the cultural experience, and who better to see it with than with an expert such as yourself?"

Itami felt a little proud that his qualities outside of work were being appreciated. "Well, we won't be seeing much if we miss it. Let's keep going."

They almost had to drag FNC away from the shop, barely managing to keep her from getting distracted by the sights along their way However, just as they ascended the escalator and were right outside the convention, 49 let out a cry.

"D-d-d-dragons!"

FAL and Itami looked around quickly, spotting the thing that 49 had seen. True to her words, outside the window they saw dragons, flying through the air.

F2000 let out a gasp. "Whoa! That's so cool!"

Itami started running back downstairs, followed by FAL and Five-seveN, with the other three hurrying along behind them. He knew what he'd seen. A dragon! Like something out of the shows he was so familiar with. Except, it was real, and what was worse - it was attacking the people of Ginza, each swoop sending bloody arcs through the air and tossing bodies left and right.

"2K!" FAL yelled, "Contact command. We have human lives in danger, here! Request authorisation to engage."

"On it!" F2000 called fumbling with her phone as she ran.

As Itami made it onto the street, he heard gunshots. Seconds later, one of the flying beasts crashed onto the road before him, throwing up debris as it slid until its massive bulk ground to a halt.

F2000 wasn't sure how she was going to explain this to her superiors. She made it through to the commander's secretary, Negev, on her phone. "This is FN team. It's urgent! Get the commander."

As the dragon crash landed, a figure - one who had been riding it - was thrown to the ground. He recovered, drawing a short sword in a sharp motion as he swiftly charged the one who had killed his mount, a young policeman who stood terrified, his hands shaking around his service revolver.

FAL drew her own blade, a kukuri, and intervened. She caught the assailant's sword along the edge of her blade, her mechanised strength allowing her to hold her own. The man kneed her stomach, but she held strong. Hot on her heels, Itami tackled the man, throwing his sword from his grip, wrestling him into a choke hold.

"Mr. Kryuger?! Yes, yes, understood." F2000 looked at her phone with bewilderment. "Mr. Itami!" she called. "We're under your command."

Itami grunted as the man struggled under his grip. "FAL! Help me out, here!"

FAL lunged, eyes focused, making a precision thrust into the man's side, inches behind his armoured front. He struggled weakly for a few more seconds before falling limp. Itami held him for a moment longer as he calmed himself down.

"He's dead. Sir," FAL remarked, not seeming to notice the blood on both herself and Itami as she cleaned her blade. The policeman looked at them in shock.

"Ready weapons," FAL ordered her team, while Itami worked on calming the poor policeman. They seemed safe for the moment. Five-seveN judged that the dragon rider must've been some kind of scout or outrider. A foolish one, to have charged so blindly into the unknown without support. As a handgun model, specialised in providing spotting and assessment for her team members, she knew full well how important it was that an army worked together.

49 surveyed the street, looking down the iron sights of her rifle towards where the dragon had come - and where hundreds of civilians were now fleeing in terror. For now, she didn't have to worry about such things. She only had to follow orders, and that was how she liked it. No questioning her decisions, and no second guessing herself.

Itami assessed his situation. He knew that help would arrive soon, but they'd take time to get there. In the meantime, he needed some way to keep everyone safe. Should they fortify themselves inside a building? The enemy didn't seem too well equipped, clad in medieval armour and wielding swords, like something out of the age of samurai. A castle. There was a castle nearby, a ready fortification perfectly suited to keep out such assailants. They could move the civilians inside it while they waited for an armed response.

He informed FAL of his plan. "Just slow them down as much as you can while we evacuate."

FAL nodded. "We'll let you know when we're on our way. Please, keep us updated. Take F2000's number."

"You're a shrewd one, aren't you?" F2000 teased as she and Itami exchanged phone numbers. "You only had to ask. I'll be seeing you later." She blew him a kiss as she rejoined her team.

Itami frowned as he picketed his phone. Was that a French thing? he wondered. It must have been a French thing. He hurried towards the castle, calling for those around him to follow him as he ran.

_Author's Notes_

_Hi everyone! This will be my first time uploading a fanfiction here, so I'm still getting used to the uploading process. I've done a few stories of my own before, but this is the first that will be so public.  
Anyway, I wanted to take a moment to address some of the inconsistencies in this story, before I get too far with it. Obviously, the idea is that G&K exist in the Gate setting, and will be sent in to the Special Area. However, Girls' Frontline is set in the 2050s, and has combat androids, while Gate seems to be set in the 2000s-2010s and does not have such things. Basically, I'm going to say that there isn't really a reason why the G&K girls are in the present, at least in this story.  
_

_Secondly, since I'm still learning as a writer, I'm not going to deviate from the anime too much. It's also going to be based off the anime. While one of the appeals of fanfics is to see how things turn out differently when new ideas are introduced into the setting, I'm not really up to doing something that detailed. I really just thought it'd be neat to have the characters I like from Girls' Frontline in the Gate setting._

_Finally, I'll mention that not all of the story will be following FN team (apologies to fans of them). I started with them, since they're G&K's supernatural specialists, but I feel like I'll be moving on from them, if only because I want to write Negev being a LARGE HAM!  
Ahem.  
But anyway, look forward to some action from the other teams later on._


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Five-seveN moved swiftly forwards, weapon drawn, the antennae-like ribbon in her hair bobbing as she ran. Some distance behind her, FNC followed, watching her back while weaving around the panicked crowds. Peering around a corner, Five-seveN saw dozens of civilians running her way, yelling in panic as arrows rained down upon them. Even as the last of the arrows fell, she spotted a number of inhuman creatures charging forward, hulking monsters nearly twice the size of a man with heavy-set bodies and tusk-like teeth jutting upwards from their mouths. Others were smaller, and much, much faster, looking like dwarfish humans with the heads of pigs that cut down those too slow or too injured to flee.

FAL listened to her subordinate's report. They didn't know how many hostiles there were, and they didn't have nearly as much ammo on them as they might've liked. Even without that issue, the five of them wouldn't last long once the enemy forces started working down the streets around them and encircled them, automatic weapons or not.

"Begin a fighting retreat," she ordered. "Any civilians that can move, we give covering fire until they're past us. Three minutes, then we're pulling back. Try and suppress them, but watch your ammo."

FNC ducked around the corner. The fast-movers would be problematic, so she used her moment of surprise to take down one, then two who were chasing a fleeing man, a short burst of fire being enough to kill each of them. Five-seveN's instructions told FNC everything she needed to know about how fast they moved, their height, and their actions, giving her the perfect lead to hit them exactly where she wanted.

Behind her, F2000 and FAL sprinted past her, taking up positions across the street. F2000 ducked behind a crashed car, and began firing at one of the larger creatures. Although the sound of gunfire was familiar to the T-Dolls, and indeed, most modern humans, the attacking creatures were thrown into disarray as nearly a dozen of them were gunned down within seconds by attacks they didn't understand and assailants they couldn't see. FNC waved the fleeing humans behind her, giving them instructions on where to go while F2000 covered her.

At the other end of the block, the captain watched as his assault party suddenly dropped dead amidst the cacophony of rattling sounds that echoed down the street. It seemed that some of the inhabitants of this world were resisting. He ordered his archers to prepare for another volley as he scanned for where their assailants were hiding.

The enemy, he mused, fought less like soldiers and more like skirmishers, or perhaps, hunters. Elites who could operate well together, even when outnumbered. While he might've envied having such troops, there came a time where superior numbers would decide the day.

There! He saw one of them by following the fleeing humans, a small figure, hiding around the structure at the end of the road.

"Archers!" he called, gesturing in the direction of his targets. "Ready!"

His lieutenant turned to arrange the men, ensuring that they all knew where to point their weapons. The moment the lieutenant turned to them, he heard the sharp sound of an impact from behind him. As he spun around, he saw the captain tumble backwards, blood spurting from his head. The lieutenant ran over to him, but less than a second after the first shot, he too fell to the ground, dead.

49 watched as the unit fell apart. A few arrows were loosed in FNC's direction, but she'd had plenty of time to get behind cover. 49 let her breath out slowly, controlling her rhythm carefully.

"Up above. I hear something." Beside her, Five-seveN gestured to the area above the retreating group of archers. 49 sat back, rising onto one knee in order to angle her rifle upwards.

Screeching around the corner, a dragon and rider swooped towards them. 49 fired, once, twice, thankful for her semiautomatic weapon's rate of fire, but the creature was too agile, flying erratically as if used to evading ground fire, and swooped towards the car F2000 was hiding behind.

Mere meters from F2000, FAL heard Five-seveN's warning. "Tube up. Call it," she growled back at Five-seveN as she shifted her grip on her rifle, readying her grenade launcher. Information from Five-seveN lit up her display, giving her a reading on the beast's projected dive pattern once it committed to its attack. All that was left was the timing.

Five-seveN watched the dragon closely, its movements, the way the rider shifted his weight behind his lance. The dragon rose up, raising its wings back for a sudden burst of speed.

"Fire!" she called.

FAL aimed at Five-seveN's projection point and fired, her round impacting upon the beast's flank, penetrating its exposed flesh and turning its upper torso into a bloody mess. The explosion threw the rider from his saddle and sent the dragon spinning sideways. FNC yelped as she dived to one side, the creature slamming into the building she was behind.

As the dragon came to a halt, 49 looked down the street that had now fallen silent, waiting for any signs of movement.

"Message from Itami!" F2000 called, holding up her phone. "We're good to go."

"How dashing, FAL!" Five-seveN quipped. "Like the dragon slayer of legend, no?"

FAL let out a smile. "I'll take you out to dinner later. We're pulling back."

* * *

FN team picked their way through the city, keeping an eye on the sky as they went. They'd gotten quite a few civilians out, though many still lay dead in the streets. They'd worry about that later.

"That was so cool!" FNC mumbled around the chocolate bar that had somehow remained in her mouth throughout the fight. "It was a dragon! And those old guys in armour! Wait until I tell the others!"

"I- I'd say they wouldn't believe you," 49 muttered. She kept feeling like something was right behind her, but when she turned her head, she didn't see anything.

"It would be difficult to deny something like this, yes?" Five-seveN added. Ahead of them, they saw the castle, an ancient building with thick, sloped walls and encircled by a moat. The bridge across was lowered, but manned by a number of policemen, some in their everyday clothes, while others were clad in the thick armour of the Special Assault Team, who guided the last of the fleeing civilians inside.

F2000 waved to Itami as she approached. The lot of them looked messy, something that Itami, at least, had enough tact not to mention.

"How long do we have?" FAL demanded, surveying the castle.

"Not too much longer," Itami replied. "We should get inside before they arrive."

The team followed Itami inside the fort. The policemen took positions along the wall, shields and guns at the ready.

"Here they come!" someone yelled. Clambering up the wall, Five-seveN looked at where the man was pointing. "Close the gate!"

The moment they came in range, they opened fire. The effect was immediate and devastating, rounds punching through shields, armour and flesh alike. At this, their assailants reformed and charged forwards at full tilt.

49 spotted several huge, ogre-like creatures, each of which wielded a single, massive hammer, easily as big as a human. She put a round into one of them, then another, a third, and on the fourth shot it finally tumbled to the ground. She swallowed. They were tough, but there was no time for her to come up with a better plan, so she started putting shots into the next one until she brought it down as well. While she often secretly mocked the weapons of her peers - M99 and NTW-20 in particular - as overkill, she had to admit that a bigger gun might've been useful at that moment. She reloaded, surveying the battlefield once more as she did so.

"Archers! Look out!" Five-seveN called out, dragging F2000 back behind one of their shields just as the impact of dozens of arrows rained down upon them. "FAL!"

"On it," FAL responded, hearing her clearly over the team's local communications system. Following her second-in-command's directions, she fired a grenade over the wall, then a second and third in quick succession. Five-seveN watched as fire bloomed in the midst of the archers, sending men flying in every direction. "Get on them! While they're reeling." FAL stood, opening fire on what was left of the enemy's archers as FNC did the same beside her.

"Th- the gate!" 49 called. As she did, a thunderous strike echoed through the wall. Not a second later, and another blow landed. FAL cursed. From their angle, they wouldn't be able to do much about the assailants below.

"Keep firing. Five-seveN, keep an eye on that gate."

A flight of dragons shot towards them, knocking men from the wall with their massive wings. F2000 fired at them as they ascended again, sending one crashing down. "You make it look so easy, FAL," she grumbled.

FNC drove one towards the castle walls, the beast twitching from side to side to avoid her fire. Just as it was about to careen into the wall, it spread its wings and swooped upwards. Expecting this maneuver, FNC's rounds were already in the air, the rider tumbling from the sky as the dragon slowly limped towards the ground, fatally injured.

"Set up a field of fire," Itami called to F2000 and FAL. "They're coming back."

"On it. FNC!"

The three of them combined their fire, forcing their attackers to break off their attack - or dive right into a wall of automatic fire. Two of the dragons failed to realise their peril, and their bodies were shredded in a hail of bullets. The remaining members fled, not wanting to take their chances, at least for the moment.

The boom of thunder echoed across the city, followed by the whine of jet engines. The last of the dragons were blown to pieces by the interceptor jets' cannons. "That's it!" Itami shouted enthusiastically. A cheer went up from the assembled policemen as armoured vehicles rolled in, the Japanese soldiers gunning down the invading force. Surrounded, the attackers quickly fell apart before them.

* * *

"A lieutenant! How dashing!"

F2000 gushed as Itami sat down with the team. FNC was enthusiastically enjoying a parfait, a happy smile lighting up her cheeks.

Next to her, 49 fretted about what Itami was thinking of them. Had she done badly? Would she be reprimanded for poor performance?

"You come all the way to Japan, and you have a parfait?" Five-seveN chided FNC.

FNC's response was lost behind a mouthful of cream.

"Congratulations," FAL added.

"It's nothing, really," Itami replied. "Apparently, I'm off to help with the investigation into the "Special Region"."

"You don't sound too enthusiastic," Five-seveN noted. She smiled as she thought of something funny about Itami "investigating the Special Region".

Itami sat up, instinctively attempting to avoid looking like a slacker. "No, no, I can do it."

"Ah, and after I got your number too," F2000, moaned. "They do not have reception over there, do they?"

Itami's face fell. There was no way to play his favourite games without the internet these days. He'd miss the premiere of a new series, too. "I guess not. There wouldn't be any satellites, after all."

"No, I suppose not. Still, look on the bright side."

Itami's eyebrows shot up. "Bright side?"

"We'll be there too!"

"Huh?" Itami looked at FAL, who chuckled.

"We're being sent over as well. All of Gryphon and Kryuger."

* * *

_Author's Notes_

_Me again! It's a bit weird, but I feel a bit more comfortable writing the fighting scenes. After all this, I kinda want to keep following FN team after all, but I really shouldn't deviate from the plan. Well, on to the next episode! Episode 1 took a lot longer to cover than I expected; I'd initially planned on having one chapter for each episode, but that's how it is.  
The gap between this chapter and the next will be a bit longer; I had the draft of this chapter done when I uploaded chapter 1, so it just took some proof-reading and editing to get this one up._


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The expedition was in full swing. Armoured vehicles - transports, cars, tanks, self-propelled guns and AAA lined the streets of Ginza. Within their transports, the T-Dolls of Griffin and Kryuger awaited their deployment. The signal was given, and the convoy began to move.

"Itami! You look snug today."

Itami looked up, distracted from his thoughts by the T-Doll that had addressed him. A short, pink-haired girl named Negev with that cocky smile of hers that rarely left her face unadorned with an expression of sadistic glee that he'd had to live with over the last few months.

He looked down at his uniform. It was very, very green, he supposed. He actually felt a little out of place, with all the T-Dolls and their customised outfits. He'd actually begun to miss squad FN. Although they were one of the teams had been put under his command for this operation, Negev squad had been the ones assigned as his retinue and command team; he'd been assured by G&K's commander that they were one of their most elite units.

"Well, I feel a lot safer wearing it," he replied.

"They're armed with bows and arrows," TAR-21, or "Tavor", as she was called, scoffed. "I'm not even sure they could injure us from a distance."

Itami looked at her blankly. "Unlike you, I'm made out of mostly flesh."

"Ah, you're right, lieutenant." She hefted her rifle vertically. "In that case, I won't hesitate to gun them down, even if they only have sticks and stones."

"Please don't go too overboard," Itami pleaded. He looked at the third member of their team. "Any thoughts, Galil?"

"I think you're getting too worried, just because we don't have much intel. What makes us a good team is our good instincts. We'll adapt to whatever situation turns up. Besides, as T-Dolls, they'll have to kill every one of us before we let them lay a finger on you. So at least, we'll buy you enough time to escape."

"Hehehe, you're going to scare him like that," Negev mocked. "Plus, I won't be satisfied unless I kill at least a hundred of them."

"Ah. Right." Itami wondered if he should've travelled with one of his other teams instead.

* * *

Beneath her transport, Springfield felt the ground change, the wheels of her team's vehicle transitioning from smooth road to softer dirt. She opened her eyes. "It seems like we're here, girls."

Thompson donned her hat, nudging the girl beside her as she lit a cigarette between her lips. Ingram's face lit up, a low chuckle escaping her throat as her eyes began glowing a sickly green. The vehicle turned, hard, and came to a stop.

"Go! Go!" Springfield yelled, her normally gentle voice now carrying the weight of leadership behind it. Thompson and Ingram leapt out of the vehicle as arrows rained down upon its armoured shell. Nearby, and APC opened up upon their assailants with its autocannon with a distinctive _thud-thud_ sound. Thompson tugged Ingram along with her as dozens of soldiers charged towards them, her force-field buzzing with each arrow that was deflected harmlessly off it.

"Kill 'em!" Thompson growled as she leveled her weapon at the oncoming troops. Behind them, M14 and M1911 were next to disembark. M14's carbine blazed away with deadly accuracy, while M1911 unloaded both of her pistols at the enemy as she sprinted across their path. More and more soldiers were cut down, men jumping or trampling over the corpses or fallen bodies of their companions.

"Thunder!" M9 called as she disembarked, throwing a grenade towards the oncoming soldiers. She struck a quick pose with her now free hand before she was shoved out of the way by the T-Doll behind her.

"Move!" Thompson growled as the device went off, blinding and concussing the soldiers, their charge broken as they tripped and fell to the ground, stumbling in different directions and clutching their ears. Thompson used the opportunity to shift her position as M9 cheered, asking if anyone else had seen that and how cool she was. "Springfield! Where the hell are our tanks?!"

Springfield disembarked, putting a shot through the leading man of the crowd as she did so, clambering another round and taking down another soldier. M21 and Super SASS were the last ones off the vehicle, with Springfield directing their fire to the unit of archers down the hill, the semi-automatic fire dropping man after man and forcing them to retreat.

"We've only just arrived, Thompson," Springfield chided. "I see you're still on your first smoke. M1911, call the commander and get our next instructions. Until then, dig in and hold here."

* * *

Nearby, Makarov was feeling grateful for the aid of the two hooligans that had been put under her command. AK-47's grenade launcher had made short work of the initial onrush of soldiers, while SKS picked off any survivors. Although, she felt like neither of them were taking this seriously enough, having turned it into a competition between the two of them. At least she'd managed to convince Mosin-Nagant to forbid them from bringing the vodka. For now, anyway.

OTs-14 "Groza" and SV-98 joined them, and Makarov again found herself wishing that her subordinates were more like them. Groza fired calmly and steadily as she advanced, seemingly unconcerned about the chaos around her, completely at odds with AK-47's more distracted, unfocused method of shooting that involved yelling something at SKS every few seconds, while SV-98 took up a firing position, putting round after round into the enemy lines.

A flight of dragons approached, coming in above them for a swooping attack. Makarov called out the threat to her teammates. She saw Groza glance upwards, but continue her attack on the ground troops, while across from her, Makarov could see M1895 directing her bigger sister's aim upwards.

Mosin-Nagant aimed, her sophisticated marksman targeter rapidly calculating a solution. She fired, the round travelling straight through the creature's eye, killing it instantly. It fell to the ground, crushing both its rider and the unfortunate soldiers below it.

SVD also turned her fire to the air, putting a rapid series of shots into one of the creature's underside, firing and re-targeting swiftly after each shot at the rapidly moving creature. While the armour-piercing rounds punched through its belly armour, she found herself putting nearly ten rounds into it before it finally went down.

"You make it look so easy," she grumbled.

* * *

"I can't see anything!" M99 complained as she climbed over a small mound, her small body proving not too useful for seeing over things. "Hawk?!"

"Not much to see, Chief." Type97S put her heavy rounds into the oncoming assault troops. "Anytime 56 wants to use those grenades would be _real_ helpful, though. You fed her this time, right?"

"I'm not a dog!" Type56-1 called, readying her launcher.

"Nah, you're a picky eater," NZ75 called as she reloaded her pistols.

"Hey! Dumplings are-"

"Save it!" M99 yelled through her communicator, causing her squadmates to wince. "Grenades. Now!"

There was an explosion as the troops in front of Type97S were thrown in every direction, a wave on heat washing over her and the force of the impact causing her to stagger backwards. She swore as she brushed the dirt from her eyes. "That was too close!"

"Speaking of dumplings, how does dragon sound?" NZ75 gestured to the oncoming winged beasts that swooped down towards them.

"What?" Type56-1 yelled, oblivious to the threat. "Sounds spicy!"

M99 resisted the urge to hit her with her gun. Instead, she sat back, trying to level her gun upwards. On a human, the weight of the anti-materiel rifle might've made them fall over at this angle, but this was her weapon, the one she was built to fire. She couldn't claim to be such an excellent shot as Mosin-Nagant, pull off fancy shots like M200 or shove five rounds a second down something's face like WA2000, but then again, she didn't have to.

She had 12.7mm rounds.

The dragon's discoloured underside presented a clear target for M99. She fired, the expended casing, as big as her forearm, popping out to her side with a metallic click. The effects of the shot were immediate and spectacular, tearing a hole through its chest. She acquired another target, firing again, this time the round punching through its skull and clean out the other side. The third shot missed as the dragon jinked to one side, having spotted her. Her fourth shot caught it mid-turn, blasting through its neck and through the rider on the other side.

M99 reloaded, scanning for new threats.

* * *

Itami was crouched down besides Tavor, trying to get a picture of the situation. The enemy counter-attack had been fierce, and there was talk of another wave coming.

"Itami." The voice of G&K's commander came through, the clipped tone of the young woman they called "Gentaine". "Our armour needs to come through the gate. Have your teams push forward and dig in. If we can get even a few through, the battle will turn in our favour."

"Understood," he replied. The fighting didn't seem to be as thick where he was, so he took a moment to orient himself. Springfield's team was to the south of his position, perhaps 100 meters, with FN to the southwest, while Mosin-Nagant and M99 were to his west. The other sectors were covered by Gentaine's own forces.

"This is Itami," he radioed. "Once you've repelled the initial attack, push them back off the hill, set up a defensive line and prepare for another push. We don't have to rout them - just keep them off the hill until our support units arrive."

His teams responded with an affirmative. He was glad that the enemy didn't seem to be putting up as much of a fight as he'd feared. "Alright." Itami turned to Negev. "We've got to move up. I'll need you to keep an eye on the skies."

She signed an affirmative, standing up and hefting her machine gun to her waist. She was excited, her entire body pulsing with excitement. Here, she'd been worried that Itami would want to hide away somewhere and deliver orders from a distance, but no! She'd had to gun down hundreds of enemy troops, attacking from all over the hill, with Galil and Tavor covering her flanks. Her once-white robes were now dyed with mud and blood, the result of the enemy getting a little too close for comfort that she'd had to bludgeon to death with her weapon, and another she'd had to tear apart with her bare hands, the cybernetic strength that allowed her to easily carry and fire her machine gun proving effective on the human face. As she advanced, her boots squelched through the ground, the corpses of her enemies piled high.

She sneered at them. "Insects."

* * *

_Author's Notes_

_Phew. This one took a while to work out. It's rather tricky to write about the biggest battle in the entirety of the Gate series when most of it happens off screen. Heck, what is shown takes up maybe twenty seconds of the pre-credits scene in episode 2. On the other hand, this does give me a lot of creative liberties when writing. So, uh, episode 2 might end up taking until around chapter 5 to get done. And two of those will likely be based off the aforementioned twenty seconds. _

_I ran through a few different versions of this chapter, where I set up the teams that Itami would be commanding, but we'll probably get to them after the Alnus Hill battle, once things settle down. So, fans of squads Negev, M99, Thompson/Springfield and Makarov/Mosin-Nagant, they'll probably get a bit more coverage later on._


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

M1911 pushed forward as the enemy line collapsed and withdrew from them, reassembling further down the hill for a second attack. Over to their flank, she could see the dragon riders reorganising themselves for another run. She scanned the hill for a good place to form up. She spotted a slightly more level section, and directed her team towards it.

They took up positions, M1911, Springfield and Thompson directing the team to where they needed to be. Looking back, she saw the last of the transports emerge from the gate. Just a little longer. Off to the side, they saw their allies taking cover behind the APCs as they moved up, their guns never slowing as they hammered the enemy.

The counterattack came, banners raised and a war cry yelled. A cluster of arrows shot into the sky. M1911 and M9 watched them carefully, projecting their trajectory and how to evade them.

"Forward! They're coming down right on top of us!" The team scattered, running yet further down the hill, now uncomfortably close to the enemy lines.

"Return fire! Return fire!" Springfield called.

"There! Over there!" M9 pointed to a section of the archers' lines, her analysis systems having recalled where the first volley had come from. The team focused their fire there, a storm of bullets that sent the archers reeling.

The foot troops came charging up the hill, hot on the heels of the second volley, trying to break through while they were pinned down by the archer fire. The rifles of M21, M14, SASS and Springfield all cracked rounds past Thompson and Ingram, precise shots that quickly took apart the shield formation. Thompson and Ingram opened up as well as the enemy got within their effective range. As they got closer, even their shields were of no use, despite their lower powered weapons.

Closer and closer they came, either through foolhardiness or insane courage. Ingram ducked to the side of a spear, blasting her assailant at point blank range. She cackled, delighting in the carnage as she turned to fire again, one handed, at her next attacker. Her body moved so lightly, and bolstered by the exoskeleton mounted to her legs, she danced effortlessly around swords and spears.

Thompson was unperturbed by their opponents' close proximity, her cocky smile never fading as she ducked under a sword, a knife appearing in her hand that she rammed through her attacker's exposed shoulder joint, finishing him with a quick double-tap from her submachine gun. She drew another knife, parrying a overhead swing as she gunned down two more with her free hand. The man with the sword kicked her, hard, her foot sliding back to balance her as she fired into him as well.

M14 switched her carbine to automatic, protecting the flanks of her SMG teammates as they fought off their assailants, bursts of fire effectively dissuading their attempts to maneuver.

M21 put shot after shot into the attackers. She was having trouble thinking of a joke to make. Well, they were fighting medieval soldiers by using firearms… so… "Maybe they should have made a T-Doll with a sling. They could call her "Sling M1200-B.C."

"What…?" M14 and Super SASS looked at her, confused. Damnit, she'd thought it was clever. But explaining the joke never made a joke funnier, so she let it be. For now.

SASS shook her head. "It's scary, isn't it?" she cooed, as the face of another soldier appeared in her scope. Bang. Bang.

With a yell, Springfield charged in alongside Thompson and Ingram, bayonet affixed to her rifle. Parrying a sword thrust, she launched a quick riposte under her attacker's chest place, into his abdomen. She twisted, kicking her weapon free, ducking under another swing and bringing the butt of her rifle down across the next attacker's neck with a crunch.

* * *

"Chief! A little help here?" Type97S called out to her team leader as she caught the tip of a spear on the side of her shield. Ducking down, she aimed her shotgun a the man's shield. At this range, the shot blew a hole right through the thick wooden shield. A sword thrust came in at her side. She switched her gun to her left hand, parrying the blow with her right and grabbing her attacker's arm. With a hefty kick, she sent him sprawling back as she pumped her shotgun and finished him off.

"Negative, Hawk, I've got some dragons coming in again." M99 was starting to think that things were getting easier. She'd processed the enemy's maneuvers from their last attack, and now, it was almost impossible for her to miss, especially against such large targets. One dragon spiralled to the ground, wing sheared cleanly off, another shrieking wildly as it took a round to the chest. She did wish NZ75 would help her spot, though, but there was only so much she could ask of the unruly girl.

"Ah!" Type65-1 called as another jeep pulled up alongside them. "Chief! Backup's here." She hurried over to the jeep as the two JSDF soldiers in the front disembarked, opening the back doors and beginning to unload the heavy boxes within, stacked almost to the ceiling of the vehicle. "Finally!" Her local connection registered the new signals from within the boxes, linking her combat systems to them. By themselves, the boxes unfolded, revealing a series of dolls that closely resembled Type56-1; so-called "dummy" models, outfitted in the same manner as the T-Dolls themselves, but lacking the complex and expensive AI systems the T-Dolls had.

It had taken months for Type56-1's neural cloud to develop to the state where she could control them all at once, but she'd persisted, taking part in training drills, simulations, and processing weeks worth of combat reports taken from her more experienced comrades. In her current state, she was able to control three other bodies at once, forming them up on her. In a storm of fire, she opened up with all four of her guns, her focused fire cutting a swathe through the enemy lines.

As the rest of the crates opened, the other members of M99 squad connected to their own dummies, turning the battle from a close match of skills into a contest of sheer firepower. NZ75 grinned. Handgun T-Dolls lacked the heavy weaponry used by their peers, but their simplified armament allowed for additional processing power with each dummy she linked to. She scanned the battlefield, four pairs of eyes assessing the situation of each of her squad members and the positions of the enemy. She fed her new information to Hawk, telling her how to evade her enemies, where they were, and where to shoot, even as she unloaded with both - or rather, all eight - of her pistols.

* * *

So far, the operation was going smoothly, Negev thought. She'd finally run out of aerial targets to shoot, the combination of her five machine guns forging a wall of bullets that ripped the unfortunate creatures to shreds. Typically, such a group might've been used to cover multiple angles, but unfortunately, dummies weren't that complex.

_Well, unfortunate for the dragons_, Negev thought as the last of them crashed into the ground.

Tavor and Galil had pushed downwards, advancing in a steady firing line and providing cover for the forward elements below. The scales of the battle were tipping as more and more troops joined the fight, amassing their firepower and forcing the enemy back.

"Tavor. Galil," Negev called. "We've got them on the run now. Form up on the commander and let the military handle the rest."

Her two subordinates returned an affirmative, Tavor signalling to Galil as they organized their withdrawal, the two of them and their dummies taking turns to cover one another as they moved back towards Itami's position.

* * *

The sound of thunder echoed through the valley below. Explosions ripped through the enemy lines. Makarov swore profusely and eloquently in Russian. Those humans, did they care that they were down here? At the very least, the enemy attack was thrown into complete disarray by the arrival of the tanks, 105mm HEP rounds blowing the tightly packed formations apart. She flinched as a sword, sent flying by the explosion, lanced through the air beside her and embedded itself halfway into the ground.

AK-47, on the other hand, let out a cheer, firing her weapon in the air enthusiastically. "That means I win, right?" she taunted her companion.

"Gah! I lost count of mine at around sixty," SKS whined. She ducked as another explosion went off nearby.

"It's like being in 1940, isn't it?" Mosin-Nagant called playfully.

"You're that old?" SVD quipped.

"Hey! Don't get distracted!" M1895 squealed, firing her gun from behind a large rock. "There's still some out there."

"We should pull back before we get plastered by our own side," Makarov grumbled. "Danger close is still danger."

"You're right," Mosin-Nagant responded. "Everyone back to line four."

Makarov didn't need to be told twice, holding on to her hat as she legged it back up the hill to a safer distance. On her way, she slapped AK-47 and SKS around the ears. They definitely deserved it. Sometimes, it felt like she'd been reincarnated ten times over, and had been stuck with those two in every single life, in some form or another. If T-Dolls got reincarnated, that was, which they didn't, but she was being metaphorical.

Well, she'd gotten them through this, at any rate. Surely the commander would be impressed with her decision making skills! Yes, yes of course...

* * *

Itami breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, it was over.

"Are you alright, sir?" Galil approached him. "You weren't hit anywhere?"

"No, I'm fine thanks," he replied. "Just exhausted."

"You did pretty well today," she continued, sitting down beside him, brushing bullet casings and empty magazines aside. "Even Negev should be impressed."

"Where is she, by the way?"

"Doing something with the dragon corpses. I think she wants to take a few of her trophies home. She'll probably start wearing one of them as a hat, knowing her."

"Ah." Itami paused. "It doesn't bother you at all?"

"No, she's always like that. Besides, that bloodthirsty identity makes us strong."

Itami looked at her. "I meant the fighting. Most humans would need to lie down after something like that. It takes a lot out of you."

Galil nodded. "Not to worry. We have rather efficient bio-reactors-"

"Never mind." Itami interrupted with a tired smile on his face. "Sorry. Well, I'm glad you're all alright. I'm sure I'll feel better after some rest." He pulled himself to his feet. "I'll see you all at the debriefing."

* * *

_Author's Notes_

_Firstly, thank you all for all the support so far. This arc ended up being rather difficult to get through, what with trying to write so many characters at once in such a short space. Hopefully, things will get easier once I can start to focus more on one group at a time. Seriously, we've got teams Negev, M99, Thompson+ and Makarov+, which amounts to 23 characters, and it's started to get a bit much, at least to cram in here._

_As for questions regarding the setting, firstly, I'll mention that I can't directly reply to guest comments, only comments by people with accounts. Anyway, this story is primarily set in the world of Gate, with the same timeline, same events and so forth. However, we have G&K in the picture as well. As for how this happened without Sangvis-Ferri, WW3 or ELID, I'll say that this is set before all of that happens, probably around the 2020s or so. While A-Dolls and T-Dolls have started to become used by smaller groups, the governments and militaries are still wary of making use of an AI program to run their armed forces (with good reason, if SF is anything to go by). Sangvis-Ferri is probably kicking around somewhere, but they're not the global genocidal powerhouse they are in 2060, or even the 2050s. There's probably still plot holes in here somewhere, though. Let's just say a certain cat-eared programmer and her team brought them around about 20 years early, and a certain musclebound CEO started up a company with the results. Because robots are cool!_

_Really, I'm just writing this because I wanted to shove my favourite T-Dolls through a portal into another world, and the rest is just built around that concept._

_Anyway, the next chapter will be a little intermission from the fighting, before we get back to the final attempts by the Imperial forces to retake Alnus Hill. At this rate, I might have even cleared the events of episode 2 by... chapter 20?_


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"So. You're the new commander, right?" Leaning against the post that propped up his command tent flaps, a dishevelled woman in a grubby lab coat appeared, interrupting Itami's paperwork. She seemed out of place among the bright colours of both the SDF uniforms and the… creative outfits of the T-Dolls.

She had cat ears and faded pink hair, though. Perhaps she was someone from this side of the gate? A real-life cat girl, after all these years? Him and Sergeant Kurata had been speculating about what kinds of creatures they'd find here. He'd have to bring this up with Kurata later, or he'd never hear the end of it.

"Ah, Miss Persica!" On the desk beside him, Kalina, G&K's logistics officer, raised her head, pausing in her task of compiling the combat reports of over a hundred T-Dolls. "Commander Itami, this is Miss Persica. She's an amazing programmer from 16Lab, and she monitors a lot of our girls, and helps make improvements to them, too."

Persica smiled, holding up a hand. "Please, that's too much. I just came to thank you, Itami, for your assistance yesterday. Do you mind if I sit down?" She pushed herself up from the doorway as Itami pulled over a seat for her. She looked like she would collapse any minute, thick, dark rings hanging below her eyes as she slumped onto the seat.

Reaching over, she placed a metallic mug on the table, then fumbled around her person for something else. Finding a canteen, she unscrewed it, pouring the contents into the mug. Putting the canteen away, she then picked up the cup of coffee and took a sip.

As she was doing this, a T-Doll Itami didn't recognise followed her inside, taking a resting stance behind Persica. She looked like what Itami might've expected from a PMC, wearing combat gear and a G&K armband, and a shemagh that featured a grinning skull with wickedly pointed teeth. She almost seemed the opposite to M99's cute, bunny-themed outfit, or even Negev's bloodied priestess style, to say nothing of the likes of Thompson or M9. She regarded Itami quietly, head tilted downwards as if expecting a fight. Had they just assigned Itami all the oddball T-Dolls?

"Ah, that's the stuff." Persica perked up as she drank her coffee.

"Can I help you with something?" Itami asked.

"Oh, yes, yes." Persica cleared her throat. "So, uh, as you know, the gate in Ginza opened up without warning a few months ago. And, it would seem, that it was opened from this side. Which is a little unfair, wouldn't you say? How come this world can open gates to other worlds, but we can't? Even as we far outclass them technologically. So I'm interested in this "magic" of this world."

"I see," Itami responded. "So you need me to…"

"It's an investigation, you see? I want to meet whoever opened this gate. I want to study it. My career has been dedicated to creating artificial intelligence. Creating _life_. Imagine what kind of dolls I could make if I had access to such magic?" A Cheshire cat smile spread across Persica's face.

"You're getting a bit ahead of yourself, miss," Itami replied. He didn't like where this was going. At the very least, it would be more work for him, a prospect he was not enthused about. "We're still busy securing Alnus Hill and establishing a base of operations. On top of that, it doesn't seem like the enemy's given up yet. Or rather, why don't you take it up with Commander Gentaine or Lt. General Hazama?"

"Because you're closer to the front. You'll be in a position to notice what's going on, and bring back anything interesting. I'm just saying to keep an eye out, is all. You don't have to do anything in particular, but we'd be at a severe disadvantage if they had magic to, say, shut down all our electronics. It's good to be prepared."

"I see," Itami said, trying to keep his tone as neutral as possible. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Hehehe." Persica took another sip from her mug. "Oh, and one more thing."

Itami squinted and rubbed his eyes.

"This is M4A1." Persica gestured to the T-Doll beside her. "She's a new model I've been working on, and I finally got to put her to the test the other day in such a large scale battle. She was in command of Group Charlie, and I'm rather proud of her achievements." Persica beamed as M4A1 reached over to shake Itami's hand. "But, she's still got a lot to learn about the world. Really, she's not that old, barely a child, so I'd like it if you could look after her on future assignments.

"I'll... see how things go," Itami replied. He didn't like all these demands that were being made of him. "Oh, but before you leave, can I take your picture?"

* * *

He found Kurata later that day, looking to hang out with him and show him the picture of the strange cat-eared woman, but it seemed like he was too late. Sergent Kurata had already fallen prey to the G&K catgirls.

"Nyaa~ Nyaa~"

A small, blonde T-Doll with cat ears was purring contentedly, curled up beside Kurata as he petted her head. Kurata himself looked just as happy as cuddled her. Itami vaguely recognised her from around the base, when she'd (extremely) loudly started screeching about headpats. IDW, if he wasn't mistaken. He'd be sure not to wake her up.

"Hey, Kurata, check this out." Itami showed him the picture.

"Whoa~! Is she one of the T-Dolls? I haven't seen her around."

"Nope! She's a genuine, living catgirl. In this base, even. Her name's Persica."

"Man, that's so cool! Like a mad scientist type, right?"

"I know, right?" Itami sat down beside him, sliding a DVD into the player.

"Hey, get this: I found a pair of trickster catgirls, a little-sister cyborg catgirl, and a cute, shy catgirl. I just wanna pet them all!"

Itami rubbed IDW's tummy. She wriggled, making little cat paws with her hands, a warm, toothy smile spreading across her face.

"You know, it's moments like this that make work worthwhile," Itami said, thinking out loud. Being able to buy all the DVDs and collectables he wanted made him feel so much more at ease.

"Yeah. Ain't war hell!" Kurata added enthusiastically.

The two of them shared a laugh among otakus, and took a drink together.

* * *

It was a nice night. Perfect for sharing a drink with friends. In a dugout a few hundred meters from the base, M16 opened a bottle of her favourite drink, pulling her cloak around herself as she took the first gulp.

"Brr. I'm freezing out here." M4 SOPMOD II complained, shaking herself theatrically. "I wanna heater. Or a bigger personal heating unit. Like, a nuclear powered heater. With a cannon on it, too. And-"

"Here." M16 passed over her bottle of whiskey. "It'll warm you up- hey!" She grabbed SOP II's arm as she started to pour the liquid over herself.

"But it conducts heat, right?"

"It's flammable! Go dry yourself off!"

SOP II skipped off, looking for a towel. M16 sighed. She looked over at the new girl, ST AR-15. She'd been standing at her post for the last two hours, nearlycompletely motionless. M16 had almost gone to check that she hadn't frozen in place in the cold of the night, but AR-15 would sometimes snap her head to one side or the other, as if seeing something out of the corner of her eye.

She needed to learn to relax a little, or she'd wear out her neural cloud in no time. She sighed, turning to M4A1. "Hey, M4, how you holding up?"

Even M4's quiet voice could be heard in the silence of the night. "I'm fine, thank you." M16 wondered if perhaps SOP II was the best conversationalist in the team.

"So, whatdy'u think of working with humans for once? 'S gotta be different to working with all the other weirdos, right?"

"You're not weird, M16. None of you are." M4 paused, meeting M16's gaze. "But, they're a lot more regimented. It's like some of them need to be disciplined all the time, or they'll fall apart."

"That's interesting." M16 took another sip. "Do you like 'em more?"

"They're different." M4 paused. "But I'm not sure yet. They all joined the JSDF of their own accord, though. Isn't that interesting?"

M16 thought about it for a moment. "I mean, I guess it means they're all people who have made up their mind to fight. Unlike us, I mean. Not that any of us mind." M16 blinked, feeling herself starting to toe some metaphysical boundary.

"I wonder what their thoughts are like?" M4 pondered.

"SUPER TRANSFORM!" SOP II cheered as she returned, carrying what looked like a dragon's head. "FLAMETHROWER! Just kidding~"

"What's that you got there?" M16 asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It's a dragon head! I thought it might help me warm up, but I can't find the fire button."

"We're on sentry duty," came the stern voice of AR-15. "So keep it down. And no fires."

"Haha, SOP II, she'll shoot you if you don't listen to her."

AR-15 glared at M16, who raised her hands defensively. "Waah, scary, scary."

AR-15 rolled her eyes and returned to looking over the hill. M4 got up to go and talk to her, leaving the other two alone. SOP II started chuckling, with M16 joining in. She passed the drink to SOP II, who took a sip of her own. She grimaced, fanning her tongue as she passed the bottle back. One day, she told herself, she'd see what SOP II looked like drunk.

* * *

Commander Itami had been right, M4 thought to herself. Over the past few days, several desperate attempts to assault the hill had been made. They'd been effortlessly dealt with now that a deep defensive line had been established and the SDF's self-propelled artillery and AAA had arrived.

With little to do, M4 wondered about the nature of their enemy. Why did they keep coming? Obviously, they were following orders, but why did their leaders want it? Were they afraid? It was a strange feeling to M4, to be feared enough to send hundreds of thousands of men to their deaths to stop her. Perhaps the gate represented some strategic objective? Other than acting as a vital chokepoint for the Earth forces to come through? Certainly, capturing the gate would prevent any further incursion by Japan, but the reason for wanting them gone remained.

Fear.

M4 felt fear, sometimes. Or at least, what she'd been told was the closest thing to it. An acknowledgement of severe threat. To humans, it became an all-consuming force, driving them to desperate ends. To a T-Doll, it represented a tactical adjustment. As a command model, she had the authority to order a withdrawal, but she knew that the other T-Dolls would fight to their deaths if ordered to.

Even her own team. That did scare her. While most T-Dolls had their neural clouds backed up in the case of their destruction, M4 and her team, Anti-Rain, were experimental models that were currently unsuited for such a procedure. If they were ordered to die fighting, they would really die.

She vowed not to let that happen.

"M4." AR-15's hushed voice came through the team's radio channel. "I've got movement at 196 degrees from here."

M4 hurried over to her side, looking out over the hill. SOP II and M16 joined them shortly after.

"There." AR-15 pointed. "They'll be right on top of us soon."

Peering through the darkness, M4 spotted something moving. She changed channels, requesting a set of flares to be fired. Seconds later, a pair of bright lights appeared in the sky, illuminating the hill.

Down the incline, they now saw hundreds of soldiers, each of who had now stopped to stare in amazement at the flares. A cry started up from their ranks, and they began to move more quickly now.

"Enemy contact!" M4 called. She checked the positions of their nearby allies. Several MG and rifle teams had been deployed further up the hill. After a few seconds of yelling at them, she heard a buzzing noise as hundreds of rounds shot towards the surprised soldiers, tracer rounds glowing in the night. They had artillery and mortar support as well, but it would take them a moment to calculate a firing solution, especially with the cheaper tech they'd brought through for this operation. "M16, get on the radio and dial in the fire support. SOP II, hold here and keep her covered. AR-15, we're going to try and confuse them. Follow me and hold your fire."

"Sure, tell the one-eyed girl to do spotting," M16 muttered to herself.

* * *

_Author's Notes_

_Can't really have a GFL story without Anti-Rain, can you? Well, you can, but I actually quite like them, so I wanted to write about them. I think in order of favourites, it'd be Soppu, AR-15, Ro, M16 then M4. That said, I have heard it told that there are some characters who are more interesting when you can hear their internal monologue, and this doesn't carry over well to mediums in which you can't, such as how we don't hear Katniss' thoughts in the movie version of The Hunger Games. We also don't get to see M4's thoughts in the game of GFL, and she's really quiet as well, so maybe she's actually a complex, quiet person._

_I was kinda surprised to find that a lot of AR-15's lines are actually pretty hammy when translated, since she seems so collected in the story mode.  
_

_Amusingly, Persica is a pink haired woman with cat ears, while Persia from Gate is a pink haired catgirl._

_As for my favourite T-Doll? That's a tough one. There's Negev (if you couldn't tell from chapters 3 & 4), PPK, UMP45, Springfield, SOP II, AR-15, RO635 and 416 who all rank at the top at different times. I guess it depends on what appeals to me most at any particular time.  
As a side note, I've had PPK the longest, being the 5th character I ever got, 416 was my first 5-star, UMP45 was my first 4-star (aside from the bunnygirl M1918 from signing up early), and just to make people jealous, Negev was my third 5-star, after 416 and Vector (I did get FAL after Vector, but that was a purchase bonus).  
Springfield is voiced by Yui Hoire, and Hanekawa Tsubasa from Bakemonogatari is one of my all-time favourite characters. I could listen to her talk all day._

_Finally, I'm open to suggestions for T-Dolls to put in the 3rd Recon team. I'm still working out the details of who'll be on it, but I have at least one open spot that can go to anyone._

_Anyway, now to write another battle scene._


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The Empire had become complacent in recent times. Were they not so convinced of their military superiority, their generals would have, perhaps, been more resourceful in their previous efforts to retake Alnus Hill. They had crushed every enemy before them through sheer might, and it had been a long time since Lord Duran had needed to rely on more complex strategies.

He reflected on this as his troops marched through the gloom of the night. It was fortunate for them that tonight had been the night of a full moon, or else he feared that they would have had no chance at all against these otherworlders. He clutched his bow, a reminder of those they had lost already to the enemy. He'd been a general for a long time in the Empire, the feared Lion of the Erbe Clan, and fighting wars had been a matter of the state, something he did under the command of Emperor Molt, but now, they had made it personal with the death of Duke Ligu.

Now, as bright lights drifted through the sky above them, he knew he had been spotted. He'd seen the range of the enemy's attacks the other day. There would be no retreat now. He spurred his men onward, charging towards the flashes he spotted in the distance.

AR-15 followed M4, moving frighteningly quickly across the hill, repositioning to the flank of their attackers, completely undetected. They took cover amidst the crater-marked and corpse-ridden battlefield, dropping prone and remaining motionless, training their guns on the lead element of the enemy forces who frantically charged up the hill.

A line of explosions threw the front line of soldiers into the air, their bodies disappearing into darkness as they were thrown high into the night sky. M16 was the oldest of the group, a veteran of many battles, and was extremely skilled in all kinds of combat roles. Even as mortar rounds broke the charge, she was already calling new firing orders into her radio. Beside her, SOP II gunned down anyone who broke through the heavy machinegun fire and the rain of shells that came down upon them, taking down one or more soldiers with each short burst, her hands a blur as she reloaded.

To Lord Duran's flank, a close range burst of fire tore into his soldiers' exposed sides. An ambush! He called to his horsemen, rallying them around him to counterattack. They stormed towards the attackers, only to find that they had disappeared. A spray of fire killed five more of his riders. There! He saw her, a pale young girl in white. Like a ghost, he thought.

"That's enough," M4 called. "Draw them into the trap, and pull back to point G-14. SOP II, intercept at H-15. M16, use your own judgement."

"No problem. Looks like the others finally woke up, so they can handle things over here." M16 and SOP II abandoned their position as more and more soldiers began to break through, finding cover from the machinegun positions.

Too late, Lord Duran saw the ditch in the earth, his horse stumbling and falling into the rings of barbed wire as Duran was thrown from his saddle. He cursed, remembering the legends about spirits who led the unwary to their deaths. His soldiers called to him, cutting their way through the wire and pulling it apart to form a defensive line around him. Still dazed from the fall, they helped pull him to his feet. The formation, the shield wall, was effective against arrows, but they were now too tightly packed, perfect targets for whatever was causing the explosions.

"GO!" he bellowed, shoving a man from his side. "Run! Move!"

He found his bow. Lord Duran was a big man, and he could draw and shoot an arrow accurately at over 200 meters. He took aim at the flashes of light, drawing his bow across his armoured chest, and loosed it with a curse. He saw it rise into the night sky, before falling back to the ground. He let out a breath.

"How?" he cried to the night, to any god that might be listening. "How could this have happened?"

"I~ Found~ YOU!" A haunting, childlike voice echoed through the ditch. Duran turned to the voice, and found himself locking eyes with a demon, clad in black,with pale skin, wide, red eyes, a pair of horns protruding from her head and a monstrous, clawed hand.

SOP II's laughter filled the ears of the soldiers as they were gunned down in seconds, their shields and armour proving no match for her supersonic projectiles. Lord Duran roared as he notched another arrow, aimed, and fired, the long-drawn bow flinging the iron point of the arrow directly towards the demon's eye.

She paused, her laughter ceasing, and for a moment, Lord Duran thought he had done it. He had slain this monster, and struck a blow for the Empire, for his friends and lost comrades.

SOP II looked at the arrow that had appeared in her hand, inches from her eye. She was having trouble focusing on it, it was so close to her. The smile returned to her face, and she chuckled.

Lord Duran watched in despair as she snapped the arrow between her fingers. Could nothing kill her?! Was she one of the twelve apostles?!

"Is that it?" she asked. Duran didn't understand what she was saying. "Ah." She cleared her throat. "That wasn't a big problem, after all." She spoke his language, now, though with a strange accent he couldn't place. "Game over."

Her grenade blasted the red-armoured man out from the hill. She watched him fly a few dozen meters. Not as far as she'd hoped, however. How disappointing.

She contacted her team. "Hey, hey, sisters! I found a funny looking guy with cool armour. And I blew him up. Boom! And he went flying, woosh, and-"

"SOPMOD II," AR-15's cold voice cut into her tirade. "If you don't shut up, I'll send you flying."

"Aw, awright. Meanie. I'm coming over there now."

* * *

The sun rose over Alnus Hill. With the military might of the JSDF now in full swing, and the darkness no longer covering them, the remains of the enemy were mopped up. Based off the initial reconnaissance reports, all of the forces that had amassed to attack Alnus Hill had been effectively destroyed, with an initial estimate of over 100,000 casualties inflicted for negligible losses on their own part.

"Whatcha got there, SOP II?" M16 asked, looking over at the iron boot her teammate was fiddling with.

"It's a leg!"

"Why do you have a leg?" M16 was starting to get exasperated by her the girl's antics, but she let her curiosity get the better of her this time.

"Uh, to kick things?"

"Put that away before someone sees you." M4 gestured at her to put it down, looking around.

"Is everything alright?" A man came running over to them. M4 recognised him as Commander Youji Itami, the JSDF's liaison between them and G&K, as well as the one of the other area commanders. While they were equal in terms of command, years of habit caused her to refer to him as her superior, due to him being a human.

"Squad Anti-Rain is ready for duty, Commander." M4 responded. They'd resupplied their ammunition, entered mandatory sleep mode and had breakfast shortly before. If a T-Doll wasn't ready to fight, she was worthless.

"Ah, that's good." Itami had started to get used to the T-Dolls' peculiar manner of speaking. "I heard the fighting got pretty thick over here last night."

"Nothing we couldn't handle. Was there… something you needed?" M4 asked.

Itami shook his hands defensively. "No, no, nothing like that. I was just worried, you know?"

M4 looked at him blankly. "I see. Well, we'll know for sure this evening. Persica wanted to run some diagnostics to see if the fighting in this world has been affecting our neural clouds."

Itami knew this was T-Doll speak for speaking to their psychiatrist after a stressful incident.

"Well, it's good to see you're doing well. Hey, I heard you guys like horror movies, so I went and ordered a few from back home. Wanna watch one when you're free?"

M4 and AR-15 looked at one another, while M16 burst into laughter. "Really, commander, you're too much. Hey, SOP II, the commander brought us a horror movie."

SOP II perked up. "Huh? Sounds fun, sounds fun!"

"And you two will join us, right?" M16 grinned, putting her arms around the shoulders of M4 and AR-15.

"M4…" AR-15 hissed, resisting the urge to pull the pin on one of M16's grenades.

"I know." M4 replied, a sense of dread filling her.

"Then it's settled!" M16 patted her teammates backs and gave Itami a thumbs up. "See you this evening."

* * *

As expected, the evening ended terribly. The room had ended up rather crowded. Not only was there Itami, Kurata and the AR team, but Kurata had brought over P7, a small T-Doll with cat ears and some form of nun-like outfit. Itami had been wary, but since Kurata had managed to get even IDW to quieten down, he figured that it would probably be alright.

She'd taken the disc to put it in the player, but all that had come on was a trashy music video with the volume so loud that Itami feared that General Hazama himself would hear it and discipline them for their bad taste in music. Confused, she'd tried again, but this time a sleazy ero anime had come on.

Itami and Kurata were painfully aware of the sound of fingers drumming on the stock of a rifle behind them as AR-15 tried to burn holes in them with her eyes. M16 had had a good laugh at their expense, before picking up P7 and throwing her out the window. Apparently, P7 was a notorious prankster among G&K. Kurata was devastated.

It didn't end there. When the movie finally began, SOP II had scooted right up against the screen until AR-15 had grabbed her by the hair and dragged her behind them. While this was going on, M16 had started sharing her booze with Itami and Kurata, who had politely tried it, allowing M16 to pressure M4 into drinking as well. She then mentioned that if they tried anything with M4 while she was drunk, she'd cut their balls off.

Despite the warmth they felt in the air, the two humans watched the rest of the movie in silence as SOP II mimicked the killer behind them. Then AR-15 had pushed _her_ out the window.

As a result, it seemed like no-one had had a good time other than M16. M4 forbade everyone from bringing it up ever again, and the parties went their separate ways.

* * *

Itami and Kurata lay on the floor of the room, long after everyone else had left, staring up at the ceiling light.

"Lieutenant?" Kurata turned to look at Itami.

"Yeah, Kurata?"

"What just happened?"

Itami blinked, the room light above beginning to burn his eyes. "I'm not sure."

Kurata nodded. That made sense. He rolled back on to his back.

The two of them looked at the light a while longer.

"Hey, Itami?" Kurata began, turning his head to Itami.

"Yeah?"

"Who told you to get that DVD?"

Itami shrugged. "Persica. Said an old friend of M16's mentioned she might like them."

"Huh." Kurata nodded.

"Huh."

* * *

_Author's Notes_

_Welp, I'm finally done with the battle for Alnus. Six chapters, and I'm halfway through episode 2._

_Thanks for all the feedback so far. I make sure to look over them and consider what's written in them, especially since there's often stuff I forget._

_Next chapter, we get to start with the introductions to the main cast of Gate; the 3rd Recon Team, as well as Rory, Lelei and Tuka. I'm still working out who'll go, so if you haven't already, please let me know if you have any GFL characters who you think I should put on the team._


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Persica slurped down another cup of coffee. Things were always difficult when you were on the cutting edge. Someone was always there, trying to one up you, and this time, she was up against the brightest minds of the Japanese military.

Well, at least they recognised the importance of cyber warfare, which was more than she could say for many of the people she'd known throughout her years. Still, the best program in the world was no good if it had the wrong input.

"How are our guests doing?" she asked her "assistants". Well, it wasn't entirely a lie; she'd requested the two of them under the pretense of their specialized knowledge, something that Helian and Kryuger had gone along with, and the JSDF had accepted, not knowing any better. As far as they were concerned, the three of them were simply acting as technical support for the T-Dolls, and the AR team in particular.

"They went for a "walk", miss," the girl, Zeele, replied. "We've managed to calibrate them for operations within the Special Zone."

"Thanks to yours truly," the boy, Deele boasted. "Those passes are working well, too; we haven't had any issues from the military, either."

"They'll never know you were here," Persica assured them. "Anyway, nothing's come up yet, but I've received word that the SDF are putting together some recon teams. So, if they find anything interesting, I'll let you know."

"Stealing from right under their noses?" Deele smirked. "Well, whatever you want. I'm sure she'll be fine with it, as long as she gets paid." He looked at his sister.

"Yes, I think so, too," Zeele concurred. "Still, there's a lot of factors we don't know about here. So, if you could give us all the information we need…"

Persica nodded. "If you know yourself, and know your enemy, then you won't lose a hundred battles," she quoted. "But that aside, your ability to improvise is why I can rely on you."

The twins nodded. "Yep! You've got nothing to worry about," Deele reassured her.

"Indeed…" Zeele added, a little more hesitantly.

Persica got up. "Well, I'm off to investigate the effects of the Special Area upon coffee grains. I'll be in touch."

* * *

The newly formed 3rd Recon team stood to attention as Sergeant Major Kuwahara's bellowing voice called them to order.

1st Lieutenant Itami tried his best to look his best as he approached the team he was being put in charge of. He'd mentioned the assignment to Helian, in the hopes that she might need him for something at G&K, but she'd told him that if the JSDF wanted him for something, then he'd have to do it. Great. Now he had double the work and a new command role.

He sighed. He recognised the sharp, focused faces of the soldiers he'd been assigned from his dossier.

Sergeant Major Souichirou Kurahawa was the oldest of the bunch at fifty years old, a loud, strong man, and an experienced soldier who knew how to get the most about the people around him. He seemed like a reliable person, and someone who could probably lead the team at least as effectively as Itami could.

He recognised Sergeant Takeo Kurata from the time they'd hung out together, and his thing for cat-eared girls that had resulted in him being seen in the G&K area more and more lately. He shot Itami a smile, and Itami nodded back at him. He'd probably volunteered for this team in order to be the first to find out if this world had catgirls.

Sergeant First Class Akira Tomita was a big man, bigger even than Kurahawa. However, he was also known for his gentle manner, something at least as important as fighting ability for the sort of mission they were being sent on. The JSDF didn't want to further aggravate the locals, and winning them over would do worlds more good than trying to subjugate them all by force. No-one wanted to fight a guerrilla war.

There were also two women on the team. Itami could tell that they weren't T-Dolls by their outfits, the green camo of the JSDF, rather than the outlandish outfits the PMCs decided to wear. Sergeant First Class Shino Kuribayashi wasn't a particularly short woman, but her peers all seemed to tower over her. She was stiff, her face focused and eager, even more so than the others, clearly wanting to present her best side to the new commander.

The other was Sergeant First Class Mari Kurokawa, a tall, kind woman who had additional medical expertise. She seemed like a gentle person, but Itami knew she held rank for a reason. Not only was she good with people, but medical knowledge was important when exploring new lands, not only for their sake, but also for the sake of those they came across who might not have the necessary disease immunities to deal with those carrying them. Then again, that hadn't really seemed to be a problem so far. Maybe it was the magic of the gods of this place; pray hard enough, and they'd protect you from disease and sickness.

The rest of the group had been made up of T-Dolls, a sign of camaraderie from Helian between G&K and the JSDF, as well as, as had been pointed out to him, a handful of extra bodies between them and the enemy. Itami shuddered. After spending time with them, it was hard to think of them as tools, despite how a number of them liked to remind him of this fact. "Every time a T-Doll dies, a human life is saved" was how the girls put it. Still, he had no intention of losing anyone under his command.

He recognised M4A1 from Persica's introduction, as well as when they'd tried to hang out earlier in the week. She looked straight ahead, avoiding his gaze. Perhaps this was what Persica had meant when she'd asked him to look out for her. She'd probably suggested that Itami be on this mission as well.

Like her shadow, ST AR-15 was ever at her side. She had a more relaxed stance than the others, but also a distant look on her face. Was she nervous? Despite their objections to the idea, he was sure that T-Dolls did get nervous, or at least exhibited a similar kind of behaviour to a nervous human. He was sure that her primary role here was to look after M4, rather than contribute to the mission, although she seemed like someone who could be relied upon at any rate.

He also recognised F2000 and Five-seveN, two of the girls from FAL's FN team, the so-called "supernatural specialists". Despite their playful personalities, they followed the salute of the others, sharply, without even a wink from either of them. On the other hand, they were quite personable for T-Dolls, which would certainly help, and perhaps their expertise would come in handy as well. They seemed, at least, to know what dragons and magic were, and could wrap their heads around the idea of such things.

The penultimate member of his team was someone he hadn't come across before, a slender T-Doll known as WA2000. By all accounts, she was one of the best G&K had to offer, a master sharpshooter who could put half a dozen rounds into someone's eye in under a second with the extremely rare and valuable weapon she carried. She had a confident expression on her face, a smug smile and a lift of her chin that some might've even called impolite.

Finally, he came to IDW. He recognised her from around the base, as well as from Kurata's attempts to meet cat-eared girls. The cacophonic cat catastrophe. Today, rather than her usual outfit, she was wearing some kind of dark, hooded outfit, like an assassin or a ninja, her ears poking through holes that had been cut in the hood. Still, despite her usual demeanour, she saluted Itami professionally, a confident, toothy grin on her face. Well, he supposed that G&K kept her around for a reason, so perhaps she was good on missions or something. Itami knew that most people who saw him when _he_ was off-duty would peg him as a slacker otaku; maybe it was the same for her?

The twelve of them mounted up and headed out. Itami was in the light truck at the front, along with Kurata, Kuwahara and WA2000. Kuribayashi, Kurokawa, F2000 and Five-seveN took the High-Mobility Vehicle in the middle, while Tomita, M4, AR-15 and IDW brought up the rear in the Light Armoured Vehicle.

* * *

Kuribayashi wondered about her commander. The lieutenant seemed organised enough, being able to run procedure properly, but he wasn't exactly what she'd call a charismatic leader, lacking the air of authority that Sergeant Major Kuwahara did. Or maybe it was just a commissioned officer thing.

"You are curious about Mister Itami, no?" Five-seveN leaned over towards the front seat. F2000 shot her a quick glance, before turning her eyes back to the road ahead.

"2nd Lieutenant," Kuribayashi corrected her.

"Isn't he? How dashing!"

"Do you know him, Five-seveN?" Kurokawa asked, sitting across from the T-Doll.

"Bien sûr! We have known one another since Ginza. He is a man of many surprises, I think you will find." She sat back in her seat, crossing her legs.

"So, uh," Kuribayashi tried to change the subject. "They said you two were some kind of supernatural specialists? What does that mean?"

Five-seveN giggled. "It is as it sounds. Whenever G&K comes across a paranormal event, we are the ones to deal with it. It almost seems like fate that we should be in Ginza, yes?"

"Has anything like this happened before?"

"Hmm. I would say so, yes, but not in my own experience. It seems inevitable, wouldn't you say? Perhaps, in times past, our own world held the key to opening such a gate. Or maybe, that was where the gods went, so long ago? Perhaps the heavens are a world such as this." She chuckled again. "As a T-Doll, I would like to see such a thing."

Kuribayashi grimaced.

"But enough of that. Perhaps I shall tell you of a time I turned into a ferret."

* * *

"Coda Village." WA2000 read the sign above the village as she followed Lt. Itami and the others down the path. The rest of 3rd Recon had been left outside, just down the road. It wasn't that WA wasn't used to dealing with humans, but it wasn't typically her role. Typically, that kind of thing was left to other humans. Still, she'd had the latest translation software installed, along with the other T-Dolls, and that would prove invaluable when speaking to the natives, although, the other two had learned quite a bit of it as well.

Her weapon was stowed in a compact case by her side. The others had decided to leave their rifles back in the truck, so as not to scare the villagers, but WA wasn't about to part with hers so easily. Not only was it something of a great shame for a T-Doll to be caught in a fight without her weapon, but hers was an extremely rare and fine piece of equipment, something she didn't want any curious humans rubbing their dirty hands all over.

The interactions with the villagers ended up being a surprisingly simple affair. It turned out that Itami had adequate knowledge of their language to discuss their map with the village leader, a small, rounded man with little hair on his tanned head. It turned out that there was another village a few hours drive from where they were, near a stream that ran through a forest.

WA kept an eye on the villagers. The last thing they needed was for some smartass to try and pickpocket one of the soldiers' sidearms while they were distracted. She noticed one of the villagers staring at her, a small girl, perhaps only six or so years old. WA looked down at her. Then, she yelped at the girl ran up to her, giggling, prodding and probing at her outfit and case. WA did her best to fend her off with one hand, but found herself falling to the ground as she tripped on something.

The girl's mother rushed over, picking up her child and apologising profusely to WA's beet red face. "It- it's nothing!" WA insisted, pushing herself to her feet. She folded her arms and turned to the side with a huff, embarrassed, until the woman left with her child. When she looked back at them, she saw the girl waving back to her over her mother's shoulder.

She sighed, and waved back.

"Something the matter?" She turned to see Sergeant Kurokawa beside her.

"H-hey! It's nothing. Really."

"Is that so?" Kurokawa smiled gently. "Well, we're about to head off again. Let's get going."

"I-I knew that!"

But when she looked back one last time, the girl had gone back inside with her mother, and she turned to follow Kurokawa back to their vehicles. Yes, an exceptional T-Doll like her, who was designed purely for sniping, didn't need to worry about such things.

* * *

They came to the stream as the sun was setting. AR-15 looked about ready to smash their radio after listening to the inane conversations that were coming through the radio from Itami and Kurata from the lead vehicle, when Kurahara finally seemed to realise that they were live, and they prepared to set up camp for the night. M4 listened carefully as he explained the reasoning for this to Kurata, and it made sense to her when he explained it; they didn't want to come up on the village during the night and scare them. She made sure to store that concept away for later.

However, even as they slowed their vehicles, a great plume of smoke began to rise into the sky before them. They pulled over while the lead discussed what to do about the situation. By now, it seemed like the entire forest was on fire, a burning glow that lit up the heavy clouds in the sky above. And then, it appeared, a great, flying monster, like the Devil himself rising from the fires of Hell.

"Now _that_ is a dragon," F2000 remarked.

"We'll camp later!" Itami called, returning from his discussion with the others. "That dragon's after something, and I'll bet it's the village we're headed to."

"Mount up!" Kurahawa roared. "Mount up!"

* * *

_Author's Notes_

_I must've watched episode 2 about two dozen times by this point, or at least parts of it. Anyway, now we have the choices I ended up going with for the 3rd Recon team. Originally, I was going to put Vector instead of IDW, but she got suggested, and I kinda have a soft spot for our favourite 1:10 feline._


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

3rd Recon arrived at the village the next day, a scorched and burnt-out ruin. The heavy overnight rain had doused the flames, allowing them to get through, but it was too late for the people that had lived here. Now, there was nothing to do but to count the bodies, say prayers, and write reports.

IDW was quiet. Smoke rose in thin streams from the ashes, and the ground was still warm. She'd burned her hands digging through some rubble after seeing what she'd thought was a survivor, but as it had turned out… wasn't. Kurokawa had given her a sad smile as she'd applied some burn gel and bandaged her hands carefully.

She went over to Kuwahara, who was uttering some prayers, one hand held before his bowed head.

"Rest in peace," he murmured. His voice was much softer than she'd heard before, barely audible to anyone except her. He opened his eyes, and looked down at her. She looked up at him, questioningly. He turned away, continuing his search.

IDW waited there a while longer. She felt she should say something, but she also felt like she couldn't say anything.

As she headed to group up with the others, she heard something. Not only were her cat ears absolutely adorable, but they were also very sharp, giving her an excellent awareness of her surroundings and preventing even the sneakiest of enemies from taking her by surprise.

She gulped, looking into the nearby well, hoping that whoever was down there was alive this time.

* * *

"Nyaa! There's someone here nya!" IDW's ear-splitting screeches could be heard throughout the entire village, the other members of 3rd Recon rushing over to investigate. Sure enough, their eyes found a youthful, blonde girl, her unconscious form resting in the puddle that was all that remained of the water at the bottom of the well.

The team quickly assembled a harness, securely tying Itami to the back of the HMV and lowering him down carefully. When he finally emerged again, he was carrying the girl, who was quickly taken to the truck where Kurokawa looked after her. The rest of the team gathered around Itami, waiting for his input.

IDW was ecstatic, dancing around impatiently while they waited to see if the girl would live. She ran over to Kurata, looking at him pleadingly. He patted her head warmly, while Itami smiled as he watched, drying himself off.

"Hey, Itami," Kurata called. "That was definitely an elf, right?"

"Huh?" Itami thought for a moment. "I guess so."

"That's so cool! We'll finally get to talk to a non-human girl!"

"Yeah!" IDW enthused. "So cool nya!"

Itami looked at the cat-eared T-Doll. "Kurata, aren't you getting ahead of yourself there?"

"But, like, a real elf!" Kurata repeated.

"Real elf!" IDW echoed. She blinked a few times. "Eh, nya? What are elfs anyway, nya?"

"You don't know?!" Kurata exclaimed. Nearby, the other members of the team listened in. "They're a really long-lived race, sometimes even immortal, and they're known for being really really beautiful."

Five-seveN looked at F2000, raising an eyebrow. F2000 returned the look, before catching her meaning, and stifling a giggle.

"Yes, I agree with Mister Itami," she added. "It's good to cherish what you have, no?"

Itami snickered as well. Kurokawa returned, a smile on her face as she entered the friendly crowd.

"It's good to see you're feeling better," she noted. "She should be fine. However, I'd like to keep an eye on her, if you don't mind."

Itami nodded. "Kuwahara, you swap with Kurokawa. We'll take care of her. Let's get moving."

* * *

AR-15 stared out the window, her eyes flicking from side to side, taking in the intricacies of her surroundings as she drove the LAV. Beside her, M4 was deep in thought, staring out into space.

"AR-15?" M4 spoke up, her gentle voice at odds with her rough appearance and demeanor.

"Yes? M4?" AR-15's response was soft, a tone she didn't really take with anyone other than M4. She'd known the quieter girl ever since she was first activated, and in fact, one of her first memories was of her. She still didn't completely understand her, but she usually put such thoughts to the back of her mind, particularly since she was often preoccupied with dealing with whatever situation they'd gotten themselves into this time.

"What do you think about that dragon? The big one. Do you have any ideas on what we'd do if it caught up with us?" M4 rested her head on one hand, thinking the situation over carefully.

The drive wasn't particularly difficult, and AR-15 was good at processing her surroundings, so she devoted some of her processes to considering M4's question.

"It's dangerous. Sergeant Kuribayashi noted that even our 12.7mm AP rounds had some issues with the smaller creatures at Alnus. We don't even have one of those, so we'll have to rely on those Panzerfaust-3s if we want to penetrate it."

M4 looked uncertain. "We're not really good at using them, though, much less the standard model T-Dolls. Besides, we don't have a lot of ammo."

AR-15 glanced over at her for a second, before turning back to the road. "Don't underestimate yourself, M4."

The two of them sat quietly, thinking.

"My suggestion would be hiding," AR-15 continued. "If it doesn't find us, it can't get us. These vehicles can be camouflaged easily, particularly if it's a high altitude flyer. We should see it before it sees us."

"Interesting," M4 mused. "I'll bring it up with the commander when we stop."

"Hey, M4…" AR-15 began.

"Yeah?" M4 raised her eyebrows at her companion's tone, looking at her intently.

AR-15 hesitated, looking away. "...Never mind."

* * *

Eventually, they passed through the gate that read Coda Village, and the two of them headed forward to bring up their plan with Itami. However, he was busy with the strange girl they'd found earlier, asking around for the village leader.

"We've found a girl," he explained. "With pointed ears." He mimed the length of the girls ears with his hands.

"Ah, an elf," the leader replied. AR-15 looked at M4 as they heard the word this language used to define her. "What happened to her?"

"Elf… Village attacked, by a…" Itami searched for a way to describe the dragon in their language. "...giant bird, breathed fire."

"Flame dragon," the leader replied, his eyes widening. The word itself was menacing. They'd be certain to remember it.

"Can you look after elf?" Itami pressed.

The small man shook his head. "No. We cannot take in an elf." He looked at the surrounding villagers. "Besides, with the flame dragon awoken, we must leave ourselves. Once it has a taste for blood, there will be no stopping its rampage."

"Ah, I see. In that case-"

"Commander." M4 spoke in Japanese. "A word, please."

"Excuse me, please." Itami bowed, turning to M4.

"You were offering to help these people, right?"

"Hmm? Yeah, of course," Itami responded. "What's the problem?"

M4 looked away, while AR-15 spoke up. "Frankly speaking, our best chance of getting back to Alnus alive is by avoiding the notice of the flame dragon. With just our three vehicles, I think we can pull it off, but there's no way to hide an entire village. Additionally, we can't travel at night. That thing attacked the elf's village at dusk, so it's likely suited to ambushing us at such a time."

"I understand what you're saying," Itami responded calmly, "but these villagers are almost certainly going to get spotted if we leave them alone, in that case. I'm certain we can fend it off with what we have."

AR-15 opened her mouth to argue, but M4 held up her hand. "Understood, commander. We'll handle it. Thank you for listening."

Itami nodded, turning back to finish talking to the village leader.

"M4?" AR-15 let the unspoken question hang in the air.

"This is how humans fight," she stated. "They put their lives on the line for what they want to protect." She smiled at AR-15. "Maybe that's what makes us special models, that we can put everything on the line in a way the standard models can't."

AR-15 stared at her, jaw clenched tightly.

"Don't make such a sulky face. Besides, I've already got a new strategy in the works. It just needs a few pieces to fall into place…"

* * *

F2000 sat in the middle of the driver's bench of a wagon, its heavy load of hundreds of books borne aloft by some kind of spell, cast by its occupants. On her left was an ancient wizard, shrunken by age, with a greyed beard and a pointed hat, who sat close enough that the two of them were basically touching, a distance that F2000 figured most people would consider uncomfortable. He'd introduced himself as Cato El Altestan, a great wizard that was renowned across the lands.

"It's rather unusual, I must say," he muttered, stroking his beard thoughtfully. "The flame dragon awakening fifty years early, and now I see your own people have arrived in our lands."

"Oh? And what do you think of this, sir?" F2000 replied.

Cato let out a resigned sigh. "Well, I can't say it's all bad." He looked up at F2000 with a lecherous smile. "After all, I got to meet a pretty young lady like yourself!"

"O-oh! You say too much!" F2000 blinked, trying to think of a way to change the subject.

The cart jumped as they hit a bump, knocking the wizard back in his seat, one hand flying to hold his fancy hat to his head.

"Ah. We hit a bump." The other person in F2000's company spoke up, a young girl with what she assumed was a mage's garb, similar to her master's. Additionally, she was driving the hovering wagon, steering the single comically small donkey that pulled the overfilled cart along.

Her name was Lelei La Lelena, a name F2000 had no doubt would be amusing to see the Japanese try and pronounce, and she was Cato's apprentice. "And what about your world?" the girl asked.

"My world?" F2000 thought about how to describe it to them. "Not that different, I guess? I mean, it's different, but also similar in a lot of ways."

"Are there more beautiful women like you over there?" Cato asked.

"Mass-produced," she responded dryly. "To the point where it's barely even a selling point anymore."

Lelei thought about that for a while. "There are lots of soldiers like you?"

"Soldiers? I guess you could say that. Those people in the green, they're the army. Us Dolls are just mercenaries, I think you would say."

"Dolls?"

"Yeah, dolls." F2000 paused, thinking of how to explain it to her. "Like moving dolls, that fight."

Lelei looked at her, astonished, then over at Cato, who was deep in thought. F2000 wasn't sure if she was surprised, or if her eyes always had that look about them.

"The magic of the Otherworlders…" the young magician pondered.

* * *

"Hey, lieutenant! Why are we stopping!" WA2000 demanded as the truck slowed to a halt. Itami pointed ahead. She'd been stuck in the back with Kurokawa and a bunch of brats from the village for the last few hours. The medic had managed to get them to behave, but WA didn't want to have to put up with them for longer than she had to.

Besides that, the unconscious "elf" girl was giving her the creeps.

"Crows. Where there's carrion, there's dead, and we don't want to run into any trouble."

WA2000 looked through her own pair of binoculars. Though she possessed quite high resolution optics, far superior to any human's, nothing beat bending light for looking across long distances.

"Those are some funny looking crows. Wait, what? Who the heck is that?" She pointed towards the ground at the figure emerging over the rise of the hill.

"Huh?" Itami and Kurata snapped their binoculars to their face.

"A goth-loli girl…" Itami mused.

"What the heck?" WA exclaimed. "You want me to shoot her? I can manage it from here." Despite the confines of the vehicle, her weapon was still small enough that she figured she could shoot comfortably.

"No, no, stand down." Itami waved her back.

"Commander, that is a BIG axe. And she's carrying it with one hand. Don't let your guard down just because she's cute, alright?"

Kurokawa moved up next to her to get a better look.

To their side, a number of the villagers approached the strange girl. The adults kneeled before her reverently, while the younger kids approached her like she was a friend of theirs.

"That's creepy…" WA hissed.

"It looks like she's some sort of religious icon," Kurokawa observed.

Itami nodded.

"So you're not being forced out of your homes…" the girl said, finishing her conversation with the kids and turning to the truck. "That's some rather nasty killing intent you've got there."

The three humans in the vehicle tensed while WA stared the girl down. She doubted Itami, at least, fully understood what she said, but the girl's voice was soft, like a knife through blood.

"Hello," Itami asked, speaking slowly and carefully, his grasp of the language still unsteady at best. "How are you?"

The girl smirked, licking her lips as she looked at Itami through lidded eyes. Like a predator, WA thought, sizing up her next meal. Though the girl's posture was relaxed, casual and unguarded, WA knew that it was a technique of many assassins to appear unable to defend themselves to fool an enemy into letting down their own guard. Besides, anyone who could casually carry an axe at least twice their own size in one hand was not someone to be taken lightly.

"I am Rory Mercury, the Apostle of Emroy, God of Death." She smirked. "Aren't you a little old to be playing with toys?"

WA bristled as Kurokawa pulled her into the back of the truck. "Little minx!" she muttered. "Just wait until I get my shot at her. I'm the best in G&K for a reason, you know!"

"Miss WA, please calm down!" Kurokawa urged. "You can fight her later! We're on a mission right now."

WA pressed her lips together tightly. "Y- yeah, I get it." She shook Kurokawa off her, sitting in her seat sullenly. She looked at the unconscious elf, wondering if she would have any bright ideas. Actually, if she was supposed to be hundreds of years old, wouldn't she know best what was going on?

When she looked back up, a pair of ear-like ribbons protruded from over Itami's shoulder. "My, this is quite the nice ride after all!" She smirked at WA as both Itami and Kurata began panicking over the young girl in his lap. "That's not a problem for someone important like you, it it?"

WA grimaced, her eyes widening in a mix of anger and outrage. "N-no! Of course not! It's not the kind of thing I'm worried about at all! What do I care about what any of you think!" She stood up. "In fact, I'm going to a DIFFERENT car, because I don't care!" She hopped out the back of the truck, storming over to the HMV where Five-seveN, Kuwahara and Kuribayashi were discussing ways to cook birds.

"You look bothered, dear mademoiselle!" Five-seveN observed. "Do you seek the counsel of these romantic young ladies and a man of great wisdom?"

"S-shut up!" WA snapped, sitting in the corner.

* * *

_Author's Notes_

_Back to work again, so updates might be a little slower than before._

_I keep getting the characters' names mixed up - Kurata, Kurokawa, Kuwahara, Kuribayashi, especially when I've been writing about one of them for a while, then have another turn up._

_I think I'm starting to get a better hang of writing Itami. I understood his character, but I'm not used to writing someone like him. Same goes for Cato, since I don't really write any sleazy characters in my own stuff. He's much more pleasant than many others, though. IDW is also tricky, since, while she's known for being annoying, it'd be annoying to read about her being annoying. Maybe in a few chapters I'll have her figured out._

_As for the character introductions, Tuka's was pretty simple, but Lelei and Rory are actually introduced to the viewer before they're introduced to the characters. I don't think they even have a scene where they tell Itami their names; they're told to the audience, then it's skipped over. I appreciate it artistically, but I don't want to move away from the perspectives of the T-Dolls in this series. _

_Also, WA is too easy to bully. She's super serious and arrogant, but has a bunch of flaws that are hilarious to watch get exploited. I'm sorry._


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

The sun hung low in the hot afternoon air. The soldiers and T-Dolls were tense, alert, waiting for trouble to show up. Though they knew that there was a good chance that the flame dragon wouldn't show up at all, Five-seveN's assessment showed that there was a good chance of them all dying if it did, so there were a great many concerns among those present.

Thinking back on things now, M4 felt unsettled at the lack of resolution. A plan. It was her job, no, her purpose, the reason she had been created, to find solutions to situations like these. It was unsettling to have no concrete plan on how to deal with the flame dragon if it turned up. Pin it down, hit it with rockets - that was about as far as they could get. Support was unavailable. Itami had explained that it was due to concerns about appearing aggressive, at least on the part of the Japanese command. Starting fights with the Imperial forces here would only make things worse for the villagers, who would be caught in the middle of it all.

That said, it was of little comfort to her as a black dot cast a silhouette across the sun. A dragon.

"Contact!" she called. "Dragon. Eight o'clock, high, coming in from the sun." She brought her weapon up. However, as she did so, another figure emerged from behind the wall of the canyon, a figure many times, no, several orders of magnitude bigger than what she'd spotted.

The flame dragon.

The dragon she'd first spotted fit neatly inside its gigantic jaws as the beast came upon the seemingly pitifully small creature, biting it almost in half lengthways.

She swore. It looked even bigger this close. "Engage! Engage now!" She opened fire upon the creature, its form blotting out the sun and casting a shadow across the canyon, too far away to hit it reliably, but enough to get its attention. Tomita opened up with the .50 cal, tracer rounds streaking across the canyon as his shots began to find their mark.

"Spread out!" Itami ordered. "100 meters. Watch the ground, and make sure you don't hit anything!"

"Easier said than done," AR-15 grumbled. "There's only one road."

* * *

Five-seveN looked out of the window of the HMV, tracking the flame dragon's movements, its behaviour.

"I think it can't track very well," she observed. "It keeps turning its whole head to look at us out of one eye. It might have poor depth perception because of how its eyes are positioned."

"How does that help us?!" Kuribayashi yelled back over the sound of her own gunfire.

"I'm not sure yet." Five-seveN looked as the dragon reared its great head, its throat glowing a burning red. "Incoming!" she yelled.

* * *

If it had been anything else, it would have been dead over a dozen times by now, WA2000 thought with frustration. Not even the high-explosive armour-piercing rounds she'd brought for anti-materiel use were any good, at least from this range. While she'd been unable to use them on the enemy soldiers, she always found it prudent to carry a few, just in case she needed them.

The truck swerved as a burst of flame scorched the earth, the heat and light emitted enough to make WA flinch. As it cleared, she re-acquired her target, now firing upon the more lightly armoured wings. That stung it. It descended, wings folding behind its back as it landed with an almighty thump, rearing up with a fearsome roar.

Now what? She adjusted her fire again, now going for the eye that turned to watch them. "Any time you want to help out would be great," she grumbled at the so-called priestess, goddess, whatever, sitting almost snugly in the back of the truck beside Itami.

"Oh my!" Rory tittered. WA hated when she did that. "But I'm afraid I can only show my blessings to those who fight for their lives, to the very end."

WA decided that if she got through this with her memories intact, she was going to become an atheist.

"Miss Rory, could you please get off me?" Itami asked, trying to look out the window as the lascivious girl clutched at his waist.

"Incoming!" Five-seveN's voice came through the radio. "Strike zone marked! Get out of there!"

Through WA's vision, a circular red overlay appeared before her. "Right! Right!" she screamed at Kurata, who turned the wheel hard, almost throwing WA out the window as the truck spun sharply.

The flame came down once more, now behind them as they sped to safety.

* * *

IDW ran as quickly as she could, her already superhuman speed further augmented by the heavy mechanical exoskeleton that ran along her legs. As the flame dragon was distracted by the vehicles firing intensely at it, she and her three dummies sprinted across the canyon towards the dragon - along with the bundles of high-explosives AR-15 had given them.

As she approached, unseen under the creature's own shadow, she noticed something. From this side, the flame dragon's eye was damaged, an arrow sprouting from it like a thorn, lodged there, no doubt, by some legend of centuries gone by.

"Nyaa! The eye! The eye!" she called excitedly. "It's blind in the left eye!" She danced on the spot excitedly. Then she paused. "Nya?"

A massive, clawed hand smashed through the rock she was hiding behind.

* * *

AR-15's lip twitched as she lost contact with IDW. "Idiot." She pressed a button, a massive explosion echoing through the canyon as the dragon howled in pain, it's hand nearly blown clean off. "A real hunter would've kept quiet."

"Commander, IDW is KIA," M4 reported, her tone cold and controlled, though AR-15, sitting next to her, heard a slight tremor. "Moving to plan D."

* * *

F2000 looked back. Cato and Lelei were at a safe distance now, their magical hovering wagon easily able to cross the rocky terrain.

"Thank you," she told the two of them as she dismounted.

"You're going back?" Cato asked.

She nodded. "This is what T-Dolls do. Get the other villagers to safety. We'll buy you as much time as we can."

* * *

Without looking back, she began to run across the dried ground.

WA saw her shot impact just off the target's cheek. The next hit its eyelid. It flinched, the eye fluttering shut. It blinked a few times as she waited for it to open its eye. One more shot would do it…

It turned away from her, shielding its weak point. She growled in frustration, switching to firing for suppression.

* * *

"Keep moving and keep the target suppressed," Itami ordered. "M4, close in, take aim and finish it."

Tomita grabbed his Panzerfaust-3 as the LAV ground to a halt.

"Make it quick," AR-15 growled at him. "We're sitting ducks out here."

He counted off his checklist, unused to firing the weapon under pressure. Check… brace… aim…

"Goddamnit!" AR-15 hissed, tapping her foot impatiently.

"...oh, and check the backblast is clear," she and M4 heard Tomita mutter to himself over the sound of M4's rifle.

A roaring sound ripped through the air as he fired, the rocket almost instantly slamming into the shoulder of the arm it was using to shield its face, the HEAT round sending chunks of dragon into the air in what looked, from this distance, like a red mist.

"Hit!" they heard Five-seveN call as M4 grabbed another launcher to pass to Tomita.

The LAV jerked forward as AR-15 floored it, throwing both M4 and the launcher across the compartment. Fire swept the area behind them, and M4 felt like her body was melting.

Cool air washed over them as the flames abruptly stopped.

* * *

"That's… amazing."

As F2000 watched, the intense flames burst apart as if deflected by some unseen force. She saw Cato and Lelei, standing upon their wagon, arms raised and an intense, focused gaze on each of their faces as their magic deflected the worst of the dragon's attack.

WA heard the back of the truck slam open. When she looked back, she saw Rory swing herself upwards, and heard her land on top of the swiftly moving vehicle. Outside, dark clouds drew in, thunder echoing as lightning struck the ground before the dragon, a menacing strike that caused the wounded beast to rear backwards, howling in fear.

It turned to flee, its wings unfolding and lifting it into the air with heavy beats. Even as WA's weapon snapped upwards, aimed at its now exposed wings, Itami put a hand on her shoulder.

"We fought it off. Let's leave it be for now."

She watched it flee into the distance. The clouds broke apart, and evening fell upon them.

* * *

"She's gonna be alright, right?" Kurata pestered M4 as they helped the villagers reorganize themselves.

"She's fine," M4 replied. She was irritated, but her soft voice failed to carry her feelings across. "She got backed up before we left. Without any satellite coverage, she won't remember anything since then, but they'll get her a new body."

"She's just an ordinary T-Doll," AR-15 added coarsely. "They wouldn't be able to put you back together after something like that, at any rate. Be grateful to her."

"Hey," Itami cut in. "You'll have plenty of time to make new memories with her when we get back, so don't look so sad."

Kurata nodded solemnly.

"You're so cheesy," AR-15 mocked.

"You're one to talk," M4 muttered. AR-15 flushed, trying to find something to say in response, while the two men chuckled at M4's assertiveness over her subordinate.

* * *

The night air was cold as WA2000 walked insistently along the column. They'd come to another stop, where the villagers would part ways with them. A few had decided to stay, however, following 3rd Recon back to Alnus. The magicians that F2000 had found, and the elf girl, who had finally awoken.

And, of course, Rory Mercury.

WA sneered at her, sitting snugly in the open back of the HMV with the others. She'd thought of a few choice words to give her later. But for now…

She looked around. The villagers were heading off, soon, so she didn't have any time to waste on Rory. She hurried from cart to cart, giving a polite wave whenever she was noticed.

"It's you!"

WA turned upon hearing the call. She saw a face she recognized, the woman from the other day, carrying her young child in her arms. WA raised a hand in a shy wave.

"Thank you so much," the woman said, approaching her. Her child's hands reached towards WA, and she raised a gloved hand to the girl's own.

"I'm glad you're alright," WA replied. The girl's tiny hand wrapped around one of her fingers. She knelt down, letting her weapon case hang from her shoulder as she fiddled with the ribbon in her hair.

"Please, take this." She held it out to the girl, who received it gratefully.

"Say thank you to the nice lady," her mother told her.

"Thank you." The girl's small voice brought a smile to WA's face.

* * *

_Author's Notes_

_This chapter was pretty tricky, and another one that I had to do a few versions of. _

_I was a little unsure of how much to have Rory, Tuka and Lelei do. Tuka ended up doing nothing, since I figured that between Five-seveN and AR-15, they'd work out some weak points on the dragon. Heck, the fact that they needed Tuka to tell them to go for the eyes was something that I remember bothering me, way back when I first watched Gate. _

_Also, I managed to get IDW's costume in the anniversary gatcha, which is kinda adorable. I also finally managed to get all the Deep Dive event drop T-Dolls._

_Anyway, I guess the next one will be a nice bit of downtime._


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10.7

Under normal circumstances, Itami would've liked to keep his work and hobbies separate. In fact, it was his motto that he only worked in order to sustain his hobbies, and he tended to keep them apart, other than when he was with Kurata and IDW.

Thus, the new arrivals within the forward base were causing something that he felt to be an unusual level of overlap between the two.

"Honestly, commander, they seem to be fitting in fairly well so far." Five-seveN shadowed Itami as they made their visits to the girls. The higher-ups seemed content to have Itami deal with them, and, certainly, they weren't a problem normal people wanted to deal with.

Itami was unusual in that regard, she noted, and so was Kurata, who, as always, had appeared to accompany them. The women of 3rd Recon had had a few things to say about the two of them in regards to the girls they'd picked up, but Five-seveN was tactful enough to keep it to herself.

"You think so?" Itami queried.

"I think everyone understands the mission here." Five-seveN tilted her head downward thoughtfully as she elaborated. "Our unit, especially. We have you to thank for that, yes? We're doing everything we can to accommodate them."

They came to the cafe. The locals were sitting comfortably around one of the larger tables, waiting expectantly. Springfield, who seemed to take the role of barista, waitress and manager all at once, gave them a welcoming nod.

"Ah! Itami!" Rory perked up as they approached, and Itami was certain that even the bow in her hair stood up in anticipation. She took his hand, leading him to the free seat beside her. Itami caught the smirks that Kurata and Five-seveN were giving him, his own lips tightening indignantly at their silent mockery.

"So, how are you today?" Itami asked the group. There was an assortment of positive responses from around the table, followed by some small talk.

"And you, Tuka?" Five-seveN added. "You are recovering well?"

"I'm not sure, really," the Elf responded. "Miss Kurokawa says that I'm doing well. But there's something else, too." She placed a large pouch on the table that jingled like shells. Lelei placed one of her own beside it.

"It's the flying dragon scales," Lelei explained, glancing over at Tuka. "We were hoping to take them to Italica to sell, since we wanted to thank you for protecting us."

"Italica?" Kurata prompted.

Lelei nodded. "It's a busy city. We should be able to find a buyer there."

Itami's face furrowed as he thought about their proposal.

"Commander…" Five-seveN began.

"Yeah. Yes, I think it'd be a good mission for Third Recon as well." He smiled reassuringly. "I'll bring it up." He caught Five-seveN's bemused expression. "That… was what you were going to say, wasn't it?"

"As you say, commander. This is what M4 was learning from you, no?"

"Huh? I guess so. Where's she been, by the way?"

* * *

M4 led the two girls down the straight halls of the base. She hadn't expected to come up with anything for Persica's mission of curiosity so soon, having expected to have to fight her way halfway across the world before she'd be able to find anything. Or perhaps that was her pessimistic side speaking.

"Miss M4?" Her ears picked up upon hearing Lelei's soft voice. "What is that?" The mage gestured to the large, bulky package slung across her back.

"A weapon to kill a flame dragon," she responded. The other girl, Rory, smirked, raising an eyebrow. M4 was used to people like her, however, having had to work alongside Negev and SOP II before.

"May I take a look, then?" Rory asked. Despite her having the appearance of a young girl, her voice was slow and sweet like honey, each syllable slowly dripping out of her lips.

"It's top secret," M4 replied curtly. She put on a small smile of her own. "Consider it a surprise for later."

"Oh, my! I shall eagerly wait to see what happens when you unleash your beast."

M4 looked blankly at Rory, then over to Lelei, then back to Rory, before she continued onward.

"You must be Lelei and Rory, then?" Persica greeted them in their language as they entered the lab, a stark contrast to the rest of the base. Somehow, the lights seemed to have been dimmed, while mechanical parts and paper notes were strewn about the room.

Doubtlessly, Persica knew exactly where everything was.

Lelei nodded, giving a polite bow as she'd learned from watching the others, while Rory inclined her head slightly. "So you're the "mage", who made this young lady?"

"A mage? I wish. And it wasn't just me." She led the three of them to a table with a small coffee machine on top of it. As they sat down, she refilled her mug, offering cups to the others. Lelei, curious, accepted, while the other two declined. "Careful, it's hot. But yes, I've been wanting to speak to Miss Lelei and Master Cato. There's quite a lot we can learn from one another, wouldn't you say?" She smiled like a cat, her dark-ringed eyes never leaving Lelei.

Lelei looked at her, aware that something was going on. Still, she couldn't let an opportunity like this pass her by. "Yes," she answered. Persica's smile split even wider at this.

"But you have to look after her," Rory interjected. "Clean this place up. She's a young girl, and she could get sick if you leave it like this. Seriously, are you a monkey?"

Persica blinked, pausing, before taking a look around the room. "It's not that bad..?"

* * *

Springfield approached the elf girl, a cup of hot cocoa in each hand, and sat down on the bench beside her. She'd come straight from the cafe, having left it to Lee Enfield and WA2000 for the moment, and she appreciated how much more approachable she was in her apron than she was in her full combat dress.

"How was it?" she asked, passing Tuka one of the mugs.

Tuka rested the mug in her lap, letting it warm her. "Miss Kurokawa said I'm doing fine, for the most part. And Commander Itami-"

"Lieutenant," Springfield corrected.

"Hm? Lieutenant Itami, then - he said he'd take us to Italica to sell the scales."

"It's nice to have something to do, isn't it?"

"It's not that I particularly like working, but it feels like I ought to repay you all for rescuing me."

"I'm sure IDW will be thrilled to hear it. Have you thanked her, yet?"

"Ah! No, no, I've been so busy, I completely forgot!"

"That's alright. I'll take you to her after this."

IDW was sitting beside AR-15, the latter of which was currently reconsidering her opinions on Buddhism, and attempting to achieve a state of enlightenment, and wondering if there might be a way around the third law of robotics.

Persica had said that it was punishment for blowing up IDW. Or rather, this had been her punishment; Persica's intention was to have her spend so much time around IDW that she had no choice but to get along with her.

She stood up sharply, making her companion screech loudly. She winced. "Springfield! Miss Elf!"

IDW ran over to the approaching pair, earning a pet on the head from Springfield, then a more timid one from Tuka.

"It seems a little degrading," she explained when the others noticed her hesitation. "We've got a lot of people like you here, and they don't usually like being treated like this."

"Don't worry!" IDW declared. "I'm immune to degrading, nya! Pet me all you want ~nya!"

"Or rather, you can't get brought down any further," AR-15 muttered. Of course, the first thing IDW had learned to do was to use the local onomatopoeia for a cat's mewling in conversational language. It'd be impressive, if it wasn't so dumb.

"Actually, I wanted to thank you for rescuing me," Tuka continued, a little embarrassed.

IDW beamed so brightly that AR-15 had to look away. And cover her ears.

"Thank you so much! I'm so glad we found you!" Her eyes were almost in tears, now. "I was starting to think everyone was dead, but we found you, and you were alive, and I'm so glad!"

Springfield shot an alarmed look at AR-15, who stiffened. The two of them watched Tuka's reaction carefully. The girl hadn't remembered what had happened to her people, and Itami had told them to keep it from her.

Tuka blinked, as if something had crossed her mind. Then, she knelt down, cuddling IDW tightly. When she rose, she caught a frown on Springfield's face, before it returned to her usual gentle smile. AR-15, on the other hand, always frowned, so she didn't notice any difference.

"Anyway," Springfield continued, "The three of you will be heading out again tomorrow morning, so you'd better get ready."

* * *

_Author's Notes_

_Hello again! It's been a long time since I've uploaded a chapter, which I'll blame on a mix of work hours, and doing several other projects, as well as an unhealthy amount of procrastination. I had a bit of trouble here, since I didn't have much to work with here in regards to the main story; it's essentially just a bit of filler where we get introduced to the Gate heroines. I had a bit of trouble understanding their characters as well._

_Anyway, the next one shouldn't take nearly as long, now that I'm back in an area where I have the anime to work off again._

_Also, so much of me wants to redo chapter 9, but if I start that, we'll never get anywhere, so it's stuck like that now._

_In other news, I've got even more respect for IDW after the VA-11 Hall-A crossover, and we now know why 416 is not allowed anywhere near drinks. Ever. I do wish Gillian had turned up, though, or that we'd been able to put ALL the karmotrine in the drinks. Or make big drinks, but that may have been a bit much to put in._


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

They arrived at Italica in the afternoon of the next day. M4 was tense; they'd seen smoke on the approach, and Itami had told them to watch the skies. That was a bad sign in her books.

"Stop fidgeting," AR-15 scolded, behind the wheel once more. "Keep your head clear. You're too tense."

M4 didn't reply.

"It's the dragon, isn't it? Don't tell me you're letting it scare you?" Her eyes flickered to her leader, and M4 wasn't entirely sure if she was being mocked, or if AR-15 was testing her. Either way, she knew better than to rise to the bait.

"I don't expect we'll have to fight, this time. We should be able to evade it with our speed for some time, and we can finally call for some air support. As long as we keep our eyes open and don't let it ambush us, we'll have no problem dealing with it."

AR-15 allowed herself a small smile. "Then this will be an easy one, for once."

* * *

They came to a stop outside of the city walls. WA watched from between the front seats of the truck as Itami took the local girls forward. It looked like the city had been attacked, and recently; while the bodies had been moved, she'd spotted signs of a struggle around the perimeter that the wind had not yet blown dirt over.

Besides which, Rory had gotten quite… excited, as they'd approached.

She tracked Itami, grateful for the compact nature of her rifle that she cradled in one arm, prepared for any signs of action. So she saw as the smaller door within the gate was swung violently outwards, knocking Itami to the ground.

She blinked, looking over at Kurokawa questioningly. The human woman reached for her radio, but was beaten to it by Kuwahara, who called out to check on him over the channel.

"Will he be alright?" WA asked, squinting to see if Itami was moving.

"He should be. A bloody nose, maybe. If he got hurt any more than that, he'd be a bit of a disappointment as a soldier."

WA figured that anyone who got hit by a heavy door in a neutral stance was a bit of a disappointment, but she didn't mention it.

The forward group disappeared within the walls of the city as Kuwahara continued to try to raise Itami over the radio.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," came the response after a moment, and the two women heard laughter from the HMV, which they heard echoed over Kuwahara's open line.

"I think we just blew our chance to make an impression."

"Actually, this could work out," Kurokawa added. "I was a little worried we'd be too intimidating, especially since you keep giving everyone scary looks, but this might just be a good ice-breaker."

WA understood the sentiment, but she personally preferred a six-round ice-pick than any social strategy.

* * *

"We're the bait," Itami told the assembled soldiers. Apparently, the city had been suffering from bandit attacks after the deaths of many of their more senior soldiers during both the attack on Ginza, and again at Alnus, and they'd been having trouble keeping the peace without them.

"She means to use us to do as much damage as possible, then finish off the attackers at the second line of defence," he continued.

"Commander." M4 spoke up. "Not that it isn't the point of us T-Dolls to die in the place of humans, but won't you humans also get killed?"

There was a bit of a snicker from the T-Dolls, and some concerned looks from some of the humans.

"Princess Pina is in command here," Itami replied dryly. "So we've got to do as we're told."

"We'll handle it!" IDW yelled enthusiastically, raising a fist.

WA2000 looked over at Rory, looking for some indication of their fate the expression of the apostle of the war god, but she got nothing but the girl's usual expression of faint amusement, tinged with a smile. She knew, WA thought, she knew how this was going to go down, and she was just sitting there smugly.

So they waited. After helping ready their defenses, M4 and AR-15 took a look around outside the walls. AR-15 had intended to use her seemingly endless stockpile of explosives to lay traps around the fields, in the ditches and bushes that could be used as cover, but Itami had told them that they weren't allowed to do so, something about leaving unexploded bombs behind, which was of little consolation to the two T-Dolls. Instead, they made a note of the areas, telling the others to keep them covered when the attack came.

* * *

"So, a real life princess." Five-seveN said to her partner.

F2000 looked across the city to where Princess Pina Co Lada was holding her forces. "As cold as one, too, wouldn't you say? Throwing us away like this. Still, it's better than being one of those models the military have been working on. Ugly little lumps of metal, and they'll throw them away without a second thought."

"I know! And do not get me started on those Sangvis-Ferri models. It's like they tried, but gave up halfway through."

"It's sad. I pity those poor girls."

"Having second thoughts?" Rory appeared, effortlessly leaping onto the battlement from the ground.

Five-seveN flashed her a polite smile. "That's not possible, mademoiselle. We are not built with such a capacity."

"You interest me." Rory slinked up to the T-Doll, so close that Five-seveN could smell a faint, flowery scent upon her. The smell of someone who had killed hundreds of humans with her own hands.

"Oh, I do love being interesting. Do tell."

"You're more human than you might think." Rory looked into Five-seveN's eyes, and the T-Doll looked back into hers, deep pools as beautiful and ageless as murder. She felt something as she looked at the demigod, something _**beating**_ deep within her. Within _**herself**_.

"It's a common thing, but also a special thing. It's something that unites every warrior, every soldier, a pride that beats within all those hearts. It's what separates you and I from those sullied hordes that propose to insult us with an attack tonight. They'll beg for my help, as soldiers themselves, or they were until they gave up everything they promised to protect. And it's why they'll die. They will come, fearful and mad, and they will try to take this city. If they win, all they'll do is wait for someone stronger to come and kill them. Isn't that insane? But you'll kill them. You'll kill every last one of them if you have to, until the last sword is dropped and the poppies grow from their corpses."

Rory backed off, Five-seveN watching her every catlike movement with wide eyes. The embodiment of war, of slaughter and murder, an insanity concealed beneath a thin layer of beauty. A beauty that would keep soldiers fighting for years upon years.

She looked at F2000, who looked back questioningly. The mission, they decided, was their priority. They'd have plenty of time to think over Rory's words later. Maybe over a stiff drink with M16, Negev and Kuwahara.

* * *

Night fell. Five-seveN found herself doing much of the watching for enemies, as the team's resident handgun model. The others had fitted themselves for a night battle; the AR team girls had become quiet, unmoving shapes that almost blended into the wall. She got a sense that AR-15, at least, was looking forward to the fight, assured that the enemy had no chance.

She stumbled over something, something that was alive. Looking down, she could make out the outline of IDW, her dark outfit and small stature causing her to disappear among every shadow, and seeming to be one where there shouldn't be one.

It was only a few hours to sunrise now; the expected time for the enemy to launch their assault. They'd spotted scouts earlier, but they'd been told not to conceal themselves, allowing the enemy to notice the distinctive green uniforms of the JSDF soldiers. Rory had seemed terribly amused, reading some form of gambit into it.

The news of their fighting off the flame dragon had spread faster than they'd expected. When pressed, M4 had theorised that Rory and Itami had come up with the idea of threatening the enemy with their fearsome reputation, despite their small numbers, something that Princess Pina had overlooked. With a bit of luck, the enemy would choose to fight the forces on the other side of the city that they knew they could beat.

Besides that, Rory had painted them as "death seekers," ex-soldiers displaced by the catastrophes at Ginza and Alnus who now sought an honourable end. Perhaps the fact that there were more troops elsewhere caused them to attack there, rather than the paltry dozen troops of Third Recon.

On top of that, they'd get painted as the "saviours" when they came swooping in to rescue the Princess and her militia. M4 thought this was rather clever thinking, while Kurata didn't seem to believe it.

At any rate, and for whatever reason, as they watched, flames were spotted at the other end of the city. The attack had begun.

* * *

_Author's Notes_

_A bit of an odd chapter, here. Not quite enough to detail the battle of Italica, but I manage to find a few things anyways. I'm sort of getting more into Rory's character as I go on, and finding more things to do with her. Tuka's been giving me the most trouble to write so far, since everyone knows her story, and I don't feel I have enough to go on to write her doing other things yet._

_Also, I forgot, when writing chapter 10, that IDW shouldn't remember what happened, since she died without her neural cloud being backed up, but I've decided to turn that into a plot point, so I'll see where that goes._


End file.
